More on The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne:

Claiborne is concerned with big issues where we Jesus-followers seem to have deviated from the simple way that Jesus taught. He asks questions like, "Why are we Christians so apparently powerless? Why do we find ourselves living isolated lives? Why aren't we touching the poor more frequently?"

The miraculous

We have insulated ourselves from miracles. We no longer live with such reckless faith that we need them. There is rarely room for the transcendent in our lives. If we get sick, we go to the doctor.

The Church

"I think I've lost hope in the church," I confessed, broken hearted, to a friend. I will never forget her response. "No, you haven't lost hope in the church. You may have lost hope in Christianity of Christendom, or all the institutions, but you haven't lost hope in the church. This is the church." At that moment, we decided to stop complaining about the church that we saw, and we set our hearts on becoming the church we dreamed of.

Another friend says to Claiborne: "Shane, I am not a Christian anymore. I gave up Christianity in order to follow Jesus."

He quotes the philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, "Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can be good Christians without the Bible coming too close."

The Poor

I learned more about God from the tears of the homeless mothers than any systematic theology ever taught me.

As I looked into the eyes of the dying, I felt like I was meeting God.

He quotes Mother Teresa: "We can do no great things, just small things with great love."

In India he worked among the lepers and notes: Oftentimes lepers don't even know the words thank you because they have never needed to say them.

According to Mother Teresa it is among the wealthy that we can find the most terrible poverty of all - loneliness. Wealthy countries like ours have the highest
rates of depression, suicide and loneliness.

Read my last blog for more of my thoughts on this book and check out an interview our online magazine Wrecked for the Ordinary did with Shane Claiborne. Also, watch the video below of Shane reading an excerpt from his own book: