Disruptive Witness is one of those rare books that forced me to read it slowly and often repeatedly. Though not original (the author from the beginning refers to the previous works by writers Charles Taylor and James KA Smith), his thesis is new to me and helps me better understand our society and culture.
First of all, this insightful book is about evangelism. The author tries to explain the kind of “soil” we are faced with and how to prepare it better to receive the good news of Christ. We live in a secular age where man is autonomous, God and faith are optional enhancements to life, the “buffered self” living in an “immanent frame” is all there is, truth is relative and man defines what gives him meaning, which usually is limited to the physical and not to the transcendent. But the problem is, even if society tries to suppress the transcendent (I.e., God), it cannot shake off the inherent transcendent feelings common to all people.
These moments of awe (e.g., when a baby is born, grieving a death of a loved one, watching a beautiful sunset) are essential to being human, but are contradictory to the general belief of evolution that tries to explain all of life solely through science. So, the modern man lives in this conflict between what he thinks he knows and what he feels and experiences. This is the man we are faced today to evangelize. Knowing the grand influence secularity has on him, I have a clearer picture of how society thinks and how to better present the gospel to it.
The first part challenges me to both examine my heart and the ever-present technology’s effects on it. We live in a distracted world and sadly we are not even aware of this problem. As Christians, we have also been affected by distraction and secularism. Our good works become performance art. We church-shop to fit our eclectic preferences. Worship is approached with a consumerist attitude.
So then, how do we as a church reach people who are glued to their screens, have short attention spans, and do not engage in deep thinking, for the gospel, especially when we as a church struggle with the same? The author proposes the answer is for the believers to live as a disruptive witness among unbelievers. We need to shake their world with truth and practices that will at least, “put a pebble” in their shoe of unbelief, to make them question what they know and be curious about our faith.
His three-fold solution to become disruptive witnesses is summarized as follows:
1. Acknowledge the beauty around us and turn it toward God. He calls this “Double movement” or the merging of the immanent with the transcendent. We need to direct people’s thoughts and feelings of awe to something bigger than this world, to the transcendent God.
2. Engage the culture through participating in and promoting the arts, literature, film and other media.
3. Celebrate liturgy and what makes our faith distinct.
This second part of the book is why I don’t give this book 5 stars. Though these solutions are not wrong, they are either simplistic or incomplete, especially the last two. How far do we go to engage the culture with their filthy forms of entertainment? I’ve heard arguments from church people why Game of Thrones is justifiable to watch because of its great story-telling, yet they ignore the fact that its violent and gratuitous sex are demeaning to women and contradicts our mandate for purity. (You can read Mr Noble's review of the books HERE).
And why did the author focus on liturgy and sabbath-keeping as ways to disrupt our culture, but doesn’t mention more obvious and biblical methods, like the faithful preaching of the Word and doing the one-another’s to a watching world? Is the author’s being a Presbyterian the reason for this emphasis on liturgy and liberal use of Christian freedom?
I am glad to have read this book and I recommend the church to read and discuss it. Though Mr. Noble’s proposed applications are lacking, his assessment on our problem is excellent. I’m currently reading Our Secular Age. I find the chapter in preaching by John Starke offers better solutions on how to reach the distracted world.
