At the recommendation of a friend, I started
reading “Not
a Fan” by Kyle Idleman about a month ago. It falls into the same sort of
category that books like “Crazy
Love” and “Radical”
fell into for me: books that I would have passed over and never read had they
not been recommended to me. But I am so thankful that I did read it!
The
subtitle of the book is “Become a
completely committed follower of Jesus.” Idleman contends that Jesus has
fans and followers. Fans want to be close enough to Jesus to receive the
benefits of following Him, but they’re not willing to pay a price for their
relationship with Him. One of my favorite quotes from the book is this one: “. . . I think
Jesus has a lot of fans these days. Fans who cheer for Him when things are
going well, but who walk away when it’s a difficult season. Fans who sit safely
in the stands cheering, but they know nothing of the sacrifice and pain of the
field. Fans of Jesus who know all about Him, but they don’t know Him.”
Another
quote on fans: “But Jesus was never
interested in having fans. . . . My concern is that many of our churches in
America have gone from being sanctuaries to becoming stadiums. And every week
all the fans come to the stadium where they cheer for Jesus but have no
interest in truly following Him. The biggest threat to the church today is fans
who call themselves Christians but aren’t actually interested in following
Christ. They want to be close enough to
Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires anything from
them.”
Idleman’s
challenge in the first part of the book (titled “Fan or follower? An honest
diagnosis) is to determine what you are: a fan or a follower of Christ? Do we
simply know about Him, or do we have
an intimate relationship with Him? Is
He one of many important things in our lives, or is He the ONLY One we serve?
The
second part of the book (“An invitation to follow [the unedited version]”) digs
into some passages from the Gospels. He takes a look at several examples of
people who wanted to follow Christ, but they weren’t willing to pay the price. He
really digs into the last part of Luke 9 where three people are called by Christ
to follow, but they make excuses for themselves. They wanted the benefits but
not the sacrifices.
The
third part of the book was what made me squirm the most (“Following Jesus—Wherever.
Whenever. Whatever.”) Idleman asks the hard questions of “What about there? What
about now? What about that?” It was really convicting to me to honestly think
about the areas of my life that I’ve been holding back. I think my favorite
quote from the whole book was this one: “Fans
are happy to follow Jesus as long as that doesn’t require any significant
changes or have negative implications . . . There is no way to follow Jesus
without him interfering with your life. Following Jesus will cost you
something. Following Jesus always costs
something.”
Are
you willing to sacrifice and pay the cost to be a fully committed follower of
Christ? Stop living like a fan, and start following!
(I
would recommend this book for ages 13 and up.)
"there is no way to follow Jesus without him interfering with your life"
ReplyDeleteWow.
I'm not ignoring your post but will read your review soon after I finished reading "not a fan" book. I still have a long way to go. I'm going slow and taking my time to read it. One thing I can tell you is that I love this book so far. Thank you again for recommending this book.
ReplyDeleteThat is definitely a powerful quote, Amy! Most of us don't think of our relationship with Christ in those terms.
ReplyDelete~Bianca
That's no problem, Leah! I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the book so far. Let me know your thoughts once you've finished it!
ReplyDelete~Bianca