The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

I’ve been trying to blog about The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne for a while now… but somehow every time I think about it I can never really sum it up. But that is probably because it is such a simple book about the story of a community of hopefuls just getting on and doing what they feel we are called to do. It’s not complicated… in fact it’s beautifully simplistic. Some people will look at Shane and his fellow Simple Way members and see a naive bunch of optimists… and there were times when reading it that I found myself muttering ‘yeah but it isn’t as easy as that’ and ‘oh come on get real’… But deep down I know these guys have got what I want… that naive faith that makes things possible. I look at them and see a group of people attempting to live the way of Jesus. Not letting the ‘whys’ and ‘what’s’ bog them down, and doing all they can to break down the barriers and obstacles our (western) society has erected to ‘protect’ and ‘comfort’ us.

There is a real danger (which Shane readily admits) that he becomes the ‘pin-up boy of social justice’ and a brand that people embrace but do nothing about (the church is good at saying ‘yeah we do that stuff look here’s our example in action’)… but that would be missing the point completely… the way of this book, and Shane’s example, is all in the practice, and it’s good to see (from what he says in the book and what I hear from others who know him) that Shane isn’t naive enough to fall for the old ‘fame and fortune’ trick, but, thankfully, neither is he letting that potential danger stop him from being a prophetic voice today… It is a great easy read – and Shane is an inspirational writer… so get the book (or the CD version)… and let it inspire and challenge you in The [simple] Way… or you could even go and hear him in person this week (sadly I can’t make it).

We are not a neo-denomination, because we are trying to spread a model of community. We are just trying to discover a new (ancient) kind of Christianity. We are about spreading a way of life that exists organically and relationally and is marked by such a brilliant love and grace that no one could resist it… Over and over, we hear, “I knew there was more to Christianity.” We are waking up. What seemed impossible is becoming normal.

Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution