Frank Viola, Revise Us Again: Living from a Renewed Christian Script. David C. Cook, 2011.
Prequels:
- Volume 1 – Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices
- Volume 2 – Frank Viola, Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity
- Volume 3 – Frank Viola, From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God
- Volume 4 – Frank Viola, Finding Organic Church: A Comprehensive Guide to Staring and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities
- Volume 5 – Frank Viola, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: An Extraordinary Guide to Understanding the New Testament
- Volume 6 – Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet, The Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Christ
Referenced in:
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is the seventh installment in Frank Viola’s “ReChurch” series (see list above). It reflects Viola’s belief that “we need to revisit and revise what it means to live the Christian life.” He proposes this happen in ten areas:
Chapter 1, God’s Three-Fold Speaking, Revising the Lord’s Voice – Viola suggests God continues to communicate to his people in three ways, “thinkers,” “feelers,” and “doers.” Each community tends to focus on only one of these ways.
Chapter 2, (The Lord Told Me), Revising Christianeze – Viola warns against hyperspiritual language wherein “God gets credit for things that He never authored and blamed for things He never imagined.” He encourages people to demonstrate their communion with God through lifestyle and less through esoteric God language.
Chapter 3, Let Me Pray About It, Revising Christian Code Language – He criticizes the practice where Christians use “Let me pray about it,” as a feigned expression of interest when they actually have no interest in tangibly helping and serving.
Chapter 4, Spiritual Conversational Styles, Revising Our Semantics – Viola describes three “spiritual conversational styles” – charismatic, quoter, and pragmatic. He encourages us to understand each others’ languages, and actively listen toward increased understanding.
Chapter 5, What’s Wrong With Our Gospel? Revising Our Message – Viola suggests there are five vital elements of the gospel which place Christ at the center of all things and broaden and deepen the essential Christian message:
- “Christ in you, the hope of glory…who is our life” (Colossians 1)
- Christ who is “head over all things” (Colossians 1)
- God’s “eternal purpose…in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 1)
- “Our old self was crucified with Him” (Romans 6)
Chapter 6, The Felt-Presence of God, Revising Our Awareness of the Divine – Viola encourages Christians to be “intentionally aware” and experience the continuous presence of God.
Chapter 7, Captured By The Same Spirit You Oppose, Revising Our Attitudes – The more vehemently we oppose something, the more likely we manifest it. It is part of our fallenness that we must call upon the grace of God to avoid.
Chapter 8, The God of Unseen Endings, Revising Our Spiritual Expectations – Viola shows how “God takes away to establish, and what He establishes is always better than what He takes away” and “God’s beginnings are our nights.”
Chapter 9, Stripping Down to Christ Alone, Revising the Holy Spirit’s Ministry – Speaking to fleshly tendencies in our gatherings, he calls us to acknowledge “the centrality, supremacy, sovereignty, and exaltation of the Lord Jesus. Period.”
Chapter 10, Your Christ Is Too Small, Revising Our Chief Pursuit – Viola recounts some of his own journey into the shared life of the body of Christ, and encourages us to see Christ in the unexpected and affirm diversity in the body.
From the Publisher
All the world’s a stage – but when we step out of character in God’s play, then what? Examining what happens when we’re influenced by environment, culture, and religious traditions, Viola shows how to revise your life using God’s Word as a script. Rehearse 10 key areas and discover what it means to live an authentic Christian life.
About the Author
FRANK VIOLA is a frequent conference speaker and author of numerous books on the deeper Christian life and church restoration, including Jesus Manifesto, coauthored with Leonard Sweet, Reimagining Church, the best-selling From Eternity to Here, Finding Organic Church and Pagan Christianity (coauthored with George Barna).
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