The PCC this summer 2009 is reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.

Shane Claiborne wanted to run away to the circus when he was little. While others who were messed up met Jesus and found life, he met Jesus and got his life messed up as he found life. Reading the Bible as a fundamentalist (not in the narrow sense of the word, but as someone who would actually do what it said) he decided to live his life as an ordinary radical, someone who in ordinary life traced his roots, the meaning of radical, back to Jesus.

It is a provocative read as he talks about his life in the inner city in Philadelphia. It raises questions as to how we can be authentic Christians here in the UK in a different cultural setting, but still with the same heart for the poor and marginalised. Shane introduces us to a new way of living that draws on ancient practices of the church. He paints an attractive life of irresistible love, offering a revolution both for ourselves and for the communities in which we live.

Occasionally annoying, at other times greatly encouraging, this book is disturbing and challenging, but it will spur us to become ordinary radicals in our own discipleship, following Jesus, inviting us to transform the world by acts of love.