Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus - Softcover

Robin R. Meyers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061568228 ISBN 13: 9780061568220

Publisher: HarperOne, 2010

Synopsis

Countless thoughtful people are now so disgusted with the marriage of bad theology and hypocritical behavior by the church that a new Reformation is required in which the purpose of religion itself is reimagined. Meyers takes the best of biblical scholarship and recasts these core Christian concepts to exhort the church to pursue an alternative vision of the Christian life: * Jesus as Teacher, not Savior * Christianity as Compassion, not Condemnation * Prosperity as Dangerous, not Divine * Discipleship as Obedience, not Control * Religion as Relationship, not Righteousness This is not a call to the church to move to the far left or to try something brand new. Rather, it is the recovery of something very old. Saving Jesus from the Church shows us what it means to be a Christian and how to follow Jesus' teachings today.

About this title

Review:

Robin Meyers emerges in Saving Jesus from the Church as a national voice for a new Christianity. He is a well read scholar and a superb communicator. He writes with a refreshing honesty and a disarming authority. This book is a treat. --John Shelby Spong, author of Jesus for the Non-Religious

With crisply prophetic joy, Meyers calls seekers and believers alike to leave belief about God behind in favor of becoming imitators of Jesus. We can save Jesus from the church, and in doing so, recreate faith communities freed from hypocrisy and filled with hope. --Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity for the Rest of Us

Every once in a while, a book comes along that changes everything. This is the book. It is scholarly, pastoral, prophetic, and eloquent--all in equal measure. Robin Meyers has spoken truth to power, and the church he loves will never be the same. --Desmond Tutu

Meyers' insightful and provocative critique of contemporary Christianity will stimulate energetic theologizing: deconstruction, reconstruction, or impassioned defense of the inherited tradition. Thank you, Robin, for convening this urgently needed conversation --Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., president and founder of The Healing of the Nations Foundation

Every once in a while, a book comes along that changes everything. This is the book. It is scholarly, pastoral, prophetic, and eloquent--all in equal measure. Robin Meyers has spoken truth to power, and the church he loves will never be the same --Desmond Tutu

About the Author:

Dr. Robin Meyers is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC), a tenured professor in the philosophy department at Oklahoma City University, an author, a syndicated columnist, and an award-winning commentator for National Public Radio. He has been the Senior Minister of Mayflower Congregational UCC church of Oklahoma City, the fastest-growing UCC church in the Kansas-Oklahoma conference, since 1985. Dr. Meyers was born in Oklahoma City, and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. After graduating from Wichita State University (1975), he received his MDiv from the Graduate Seminary of Phillips University (1979) and his Doctor of Ministry degree from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey (1981). In 1991 he was awarded a PhD by the University of Oklahoma s Communication Department, for his work in the area of persuasion and preaching. Dr. Meyers is the author of five books. His first, With Ears to Hear: Preaching as Self-Persuasion (Pilgrim Press, 1993), is a textbook for preachers, and his second is a book on living a simpler and more sacramental existence, entitled Morning Sun on a White Piano: Simple Pleasures and the Sacramental Life (Doubleday, New York, 1998), which was endorsed by Bill Moyers. A third book, The Virtue in the Vice: Finding Seven Lively Virtues in the Seven Deadly Sins came out in August 2004 from H.C.I., endorsed by Desmond Tutu. A fourth book, Why the Christian Right Is Wrong: A Minister s Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, and Your Future (Jossey/Bass, San Francisco, 2006), expanded upon an antiwar speech he delivered at the University of Oklahoma that became an internet phenomenon, endorsed by Bill Moyers, Desmond Tutu, John Shelby Spong, and the late William Sloane Coffin Jr. His fifth book, due out February 24, 2009, from Harper Collins, is entitled Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshipping Christ and Start Following Jesus (Harper One, 2009), endorsed by Desmond Tutu, Bill Moyers, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Dr. Fred B. Craddock, and Diana Butler Bass. Dr. Meyers is a member of the Jesus Seminar, and a frequent preacher and speaker at church conferences and communication workshops across the country. He was twice a finalist for the pulpit of The Riverside Church, the Earl Preacher at the Earl Lectures in Berkeley in 2000, winner of the Angie Debo Civil Libertarian of the Year Award from the ACLU, and was featured in an HBO documentary, The Execution of Wanda Jean, the story of the first woman executed in Oklahoma and of Dr. Meyers s efforts to save her life. His Sunday morning sermon broadcast (KOKC AM 1520, 9:30 a.m.) reaches the largest listening audience of any religious broadcast in Oklahoma. He is married to Shawn Meyers, an Oklahoma City artist, and they are the parents of three children, Blue, 31, Chelsea, 28, and Cass, 15.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061568228
• ISBN 13: 9780061568220
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256