Disruptive Witness
While being quarantined at home during the Coronavirus pandemic, I find myself easily distracted and unable to have deep engagement with God. I am scared that this new normal of unspiritual habits are being ingrained into my life.
In his book Disruptive Witness - the 2018 WORLD Magazine Book of the Year for Accessible Theology and the 2018 ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award winner - Alan Noble shows us how to speak truth in a distracted age.
Barriers to the Gospel
Alan Noble is assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University and cofounder and editor-in-chief of Christ and Pop Culture. The book is divided into two parts. Part One: A Distracted, Secular Age - speaks on the barrier of endless distraction, the barrier of the buffered self, and our searching for visions of fullness.
Noble exhorts Christians to bear witness to the gospel of Christ in a different way. We must communicate the gospel in such a way that we puncture the buzz of modern life and our attempts at crafting identities and narratives of our own.
Baring Witness to the Gospel
Noble pinpoints three major effects on our ability to communicate about matters of faith and ultimate meaning: (1) it is easier to ignore contradictions and flaws in our basic beliefs, (2) we are less likely to devote time to introspection, and (3) conversations about faith can be easily perceived as just another exercise in superficial identity formation.
At the end of part one, Noble makes three conclusions. First, we have an obligation to examine ourselves and see how we may unknowingly find our meaning and justification in one of the billion micro narratives that fill our culture. Second, our response to a distracted, secular age cannot be a retreat into authentic individualism as it is commonly understood. Third, to bear witness to our faith we need to be attuned to how our neighbors conceive of meaning and justification, what visions of fullness move them, and where they have found particular visions wanting.
Personal Habits, Church Practices, and Cultural Narratives
Part two begins by discussing disruptive personal habits. One concept that spoke to my Instagram tendencies is making the effort to live aesthetically. It is living in such a way that acknowledges God‘s beauty, understands the allusiveness of our world, and inspires the imagination to think of God’s grandeur in creation, goodness, and love.
Another concept is called the double movement. It means to look at something and then direct your gaze towards God. And instead of focusing on the object or yourself, your focus remains on God. Noble concludes the chapter by looking at prayer and the Sabbath as personal practices for disruptive witness.
Next, Noble turns to disruptive church practices. He looks at liturgical elements that are lost in modern times. However, with COVID-19, I am at a deeper appreciation and longing for the simple structures and elements of worship that are essential for the church.
To disrupt cultural practices, Noble encourages us to see the world and stories, participate in these stories with our friends, and dialogue with others about God’s story. This chapter has special meaning during this time of social distancing. We can still partake in the narrative of our time and point to the one who holds the world in his hands.
Disruption, not Distraction
In a haunting conclusion, Noble makes the point that we can still be passively comfortable even in circumstances of suffering and discontent – without the proper fear of God or the knowledge of what it means to be truly alive.
True Christianity is the disruptive witness that this world needs. Indeed, it longs for a savior. And when Jesus disrupts us, he doesn’t distract. He gives soul-satisfying rest and inexplicable peace.
This review was originally published in 2020. I received a media copy of Disruptive Witness and this is my honest review. Find more of my book reviews and follow Dive In, Dig Deep on Instagram - my account dedicated to Bibles and books to see the beauty of the Bible and the role of reading in the Christian life. To read all of my book reviews and to receive all of the free eBooks I find on the web, subscribe to my free newsletter.