My book Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire releases in less than a month! You can pre-order it today. And if you want to get a head start, you can read the first chapter for free HERE.
I’m already seeing a lot of buzz bout it online. A lot of it is positive; some has been quite critical. Part of this is my fault, I guess. I have been stirring stuff up online by making statements that I think are easily justified from Scripture, but by themselves could be interpreted in different ways. Especially if someone is stuck in the boring “right vs. left; left vs. right” political paradigm.
For instance, some people assume that the very concept of Exiles is an argument for separating from society or not caring about the poor, marginalized, and all the evil we see in the world. Others think “living as Exiles” means we shouldn’t care about politics or certain political issues like abortion, racism, immigration, or war.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
As you’ll see from my book, I’m not at all arguing for removing ourselves from society and ignoring the world around us. Quite the opposite. I’m arguing that we should absolutely pursue justice and peace and righteousness in the world. But we do so as exiles—as a global multi-ethnic family of believers scatted among the nations—not as Babylonians.
The question is not whether to engage the world around us, but how?
The Bible has much to say about this. One foundational step is to reimagine what it even means to be the church, to embody the kind of political community that we want to see in the world. And this includes becoming more suspicious about the many ways that the empire woos us into bowing the knee to Caesar instead of King Jesus.
I’m excited for you all to enter into this important conversation with me! Check out the trailer we made below:
