Dean Inserra’s The Unsaved Christian: Reaching
Cultural Christianity with the Gospel examines a truth that many church folks
want to ignore: not everyone who calls
themselves a Christian is a Christian.
Churches are a mixed group – with believers and unbelievers – and that
is true even if the unbelievers think they are believers.
Inserra explains that after seminary, he felt bad that he
was returning home to minister in the Bible Belt while many of his classmates
were going overseas to minister. A
friend of his set him straight saying that the Bible Belt may be a more
difficult mission field because the people in the churches believe they are
Christians when they are not – they believe in God, but they don’t believe
their sin is a problem or that they need a Savior in the biblical sense (12).
Inserra looks at a variety of iterations of the cultural
believer, where their beliefs fall short of true Christianity, barriers to
their belief, and ways that one might bring the Gospel to the most effectively. He addresses distinct problem with cultural
Roman Catholics versus cultural Protestants and gives encouragement for the
work of bringing the Gospel to them.
Finally, he asks the reader if he is sure he is not a
cultural Christian.
Each chapter concludes with reflection questions, and
there is a chart and the end of the book showing the various cultural
Christians, there issues, and ways to approach them with the Gospel.
What the author claims is true – I see it in the churches
in my neighborhood and in my own extended family. Christian means a good person to many people
– and nothing more than that. The book
is full of anecdotes and is very readable.
The author gets a little repetitive, but one may want to just read
certain chapters to address certain issues one sees. Overall, it is a useful and revealing work.
[This review appears on my blog, my YouTube channel,
Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com.]
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