An anecdote relating to personal conflict between him and Thom Rainer is likely the most potent example. Writing from a deep background of missiology, church planting, missionary endeavor, and growing self-aware humanity, Stetzer leverages theological and social scientific rigor against the counterweight of pastoral concern and candid observations on his own personal struggles to produce a work worthy of broad attention. While I understand his preemptive comment, I think he would have been better served using more charitable terminology, rather than the oft-used mother’s basement phrasing. My only quibble is that in reference to people possibly taking this language out of context and objecting to it, he frets the hypothetical headline on “some blog site run by a guy who lives in his mother’s basement: ‘Stetzer calls for subversive agents of world conquest'” (p.21). That’s really subversive!” I whole-heartedly concur. On page 21, Stetzer summarizes his call to subversive action as follows: it “is sharing and showing the good news of Jesus. A subversive plan of action wherein the church is called to join God on his mission, which is to bring glory to himself by creating a kingdom and saving people through the gospel for his glory. A subversive way of life, a section particularly helpful with its focus on eliminating personal idols and learning to seek reconciliation with others and 3. A subversive way of thinking, which makes an eloquent case for rebelling against rebellion 2. While numerous books on the market point to the problems of the church (especially the conservative evangelical stream) and its leaders in ways that are hurtful, Stetzer navigates a balance of confessing problem areas while offering a redemptive–indeed, subversive–way forward. Ed Stetzer makes an important contribution to the conversation on missional living and spirituality with his book, Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation.
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