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| The Jesus of Suburbia: Have We Tamed the Son of God to Fit Our Lifestyle? | 
 enlarge | Author: Mike Erre
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Category: Book
List Price: $13.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (14 reviews)
Sales Rank: 16506
Format: Bargain Price
Language: English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8
Dewey Decimal Number: 248.4
ASIN: B0013L2EY0
Publication Date: October 10, 2006
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| Customer Reviews:
GREAT BOOK! March 21, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mike Erre is a fantastic writer! His book is to the point, but very entertaining. I would recommend it to everyone!
Let the revolution begin! January 11, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
An excellent perspective on how we often sell out the true call of our faith for a consumer substitute. A challenge to guard against being so lulled by the comforts and trappings of suburban-American life that we literally begin to mix values that don't belong in our faith. That's called syncretism and as The Jesus of Suburbia makes clear, it's a big mistake.
To take the vision of this book seriously would lead to a beautiful living out of our faith as followers of Christ in the midst of our culture. This is excellent and accessible material that you can easily use in a small-group setting or to inform your teaching. As a pastor myself, I highly recommend it.
You may also be interested in learning more about ROCKHARBOR Church in Costa Mesa, CA where Mike Erre is the Teaching Pastor. It is a community of faith striving to live it's values in impressively unique ways despite it's location in the plush sun-drenched mall-topia of Orange County. If anyone has authority to speak of the challenges of truly being the Church in suburbia, it is Mike Erre with ROCKHARBOR as a living example.
 A Good View of the Kingdom concept January 9, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Once you get around the tackiness of the "suburbia" theme, you can appreciate what Mike Erre is trying to do. His description of the two kingdoms (what's Caesar's and what's God's) is illuminating. He helps understand Christianity as an open door rather than a closed theology.
insightful and provocative December 24, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mike Erre's book takes a look at the Jesus that has been created by modern religion and questions how true that view of him really is. This is a wonderful book with many unique insights that provoke the reader to consider the source of their beliefs and challenge him/her to action.
 Theology is Dangerous... or Absolutely Crucial? December 7, 2006
14 out of 25 found this review helpful
**I have not read the entire book, so my rating reflects that which I have read**
Mike makes some good points in this book, calling Christians to actively live out their relationship with Christ. However, I believe some of his recommendations are much more harmful than helpful. In his chapter "Theology is Dangerous," Mike makes the argument that Christians in America are too educated, too intellectual, and not personal enough. I don't think it is ever possible to know too much about God, and American Christians are very, very far from being too educated (how many American Christians can name the five solas of the reformation, or have any idea what Arminianism or Calvinism is, or even know what the word sovereign means?). I spent 20 years in the church without ever knowing there is a right way and a wrong way to think about God.
Yes, we should be living a life that draws us closer to Christ and reveals His love to others, but are we to do so by abandoning the study of theology? I agree that knowing theology doesn't mean you know God personally, in the biblical sense... but truly knowing God must include a study of the theology revealed in Scripture, for this is how He has revealed Himself to us, that we may know what He is like.
I think a quote from A. W. Tozer explains this more clearly and eloquently than I ever may:
"A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I belive there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.
It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.
All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of God: That He is; what He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him." -Knowledge of the Holy
Speaking from personal experience, my relationship with Christ and in turn, the life I live, has undergone a "revolution" because of an introduction to the study of theology. Looking back I can see that I was never taught any kind of theology in any depth at any of the churches I attended, including Rock Harbor where Mike preaches, and this chapter helps explain why.
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