Radically Unleashed into a Sold Out Wanderer fighting the Current Religion Institutional Systems

I sometimes wonder if the church has become a sounding board of awesome ideas unrealized.  We're awesome at planning/talking/writing, and not as awesome at doing/being.

I look at sermons on prayer vs. unattended prayer meetings.  Sermons on serving vs. unfilled serving roles.  Articles about sacrifice vs. the reality of unmet needs.  Weblog posts complaining about stuff vs me doing something about it... So this was my fear about Unleashed.  Was this another book about reaching into something amazing that would revolutionize the world!?!?

O.K., enough about me.  I'm here to review the Erwin McManus book Unleashed.  I was sent a free copy of the book in exchange for the following words...which means this weblog post is worth about twelve bucks.

This was a fairly quick read because I realized fairly early in that I'd already read The Barbarian Way.
Turns out this was the same book.
A cynic would say that he's just trying to sell more books without having to write new books.
A cynic would point out that that first guy was just being cynical -and judgmental on top of that.
A more sensitive person would ask why I was assuming the cynic was a guy.

Turns out that Erwin liked his first book but the title made it seem like a book that only men would read.  I'm not really sure about the etymology of Barbarian...but I'd probably assume he was talking about a dude too. (stop judging me, Erwin said it first)

So my first thought was this was another hipster pastor who loved to talk about this radical thing that would go against the grain of traditional faith/church/christians/thinking.  This isn't your grandpa's faith, yo!

My second thought was - maybe this guy is the real deal.  Maybe it isn't just words on a page.  Why don't you just read it for what it is?

Turns out it's a pretty solid read.  Erwin challenges, encourages and points to something more than jumping through the hoops of life and faith.  He talks of a raw, unscripted life that points toward stepping into things that are unfamiliar or, at best, uncomfortable.

"Perhaps the tragedy of our time is that such an overwhelming number of us who declare Jesus as Lord have become domesticated - or, if you will, civilized. We have lost the simplicity of our early faith. Beyond that, we have lost the passion and power of that raw, untamed, and primal faith." p.12

If you like books that challenge you and/or cause you to re-evaluate your day to day marching orders...this probably would be worth a read.