Leonard Sweet _ Outstanding Teaching on Discipleship

I love Leonard Sweet’s book ‘What Matters Most.’  I would rank it along with the works of Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, Mark Buchanan, and Eugene Peterson as being among the top writing on what it means to follow Jesus that is available today.  Of the many works by Sweet I have read, this is among the best.

 

I think the real strength is in Sweet’s emphasis on relationship and his emphasis on the person of Jesus (as opposed to the religious concept, see p. 21).  This is seen in a simple but thoroughly true statement: “Faith in God is a relationship involving all of who you are and all that is around you” (p.14).  That obviously has far-reaching implications. 

 

One of those implications is the center of life for one who would be a disciple of Jesus.  Just as John Ortberg makes the point that Jesus is looking for followers not admirers in his book ‘The Life You’ve Always Wanted,’ here Sweet says, “Faith is the willing acceptance of Jesus’ invitation: follow me’” (p.24).  Sweet rejects faith as a proposition or as an asserted belief.  Faith is not something declared and the defended in a debate, formal or informal.  Faith is something lived in a dynamic relationship. 

 

As Sweet does in all his books, he illustrates faith as life following Jesus through a variety of helpful metaphors.  He also helps his presentation with several comparisons that are quite illustrative.  One being the faith as life verses faith as proposition that I mentioned previously. 

 

A final thought and one I find both challenging and convicting; he challenges the modern American’s church’s presentation of Jesus.  “Sadly, the church is too busy connecting people to the memory of Jesus, the Jesus who ‘once was’ or the promise of the returning Christ who ‘is to come.’  Meanwhile, the church is neglecting the Jesus who ‘is right now,’ the Jesus who lives all around us in the lives of the poor, the sick, the disabled, the persecuted, and the dying” (p. 137). 

 

Is he right?  Is the church guilty of neglecting the present Jesus?  Is the church failing to lead people to the Jesus who works in the world right now?  I don’t know.  I suppose it varies from church to church.  But as a pastor, I love that authors like Leonard Sweet hold this convicting question before me because it keeps me on the needed edge in how I prepare to work in ministry.

 

I recommend ‘What Matters Most’ as a must-read for who would follow Jesus in the United States in the 21^st century.

Leonard Sweet's Viral

Review of Viral by Leonard Sweet

Waterbrook Press, Colorado Spring, 2012

June 28, 2012

            Pastor/University Professor/Author/Futurist Leonard Sweet identifies a massive paradigm shift in western (and maybe world) culture as humanity moves from the age of printed press to the digital age.  An example of Sweet’s labeling and describing of this shift is seen in his accurate depiction of the word ‘text.’  For people of the print age, people he calls Gutenbergers, ‘text’ is a noun.  It is something you read.  For those in the digital age, the age of the information cloud, ‘text’ is a verb.  You, the user, provides content, and you convey the content by texting.  This is just one of numerous ways Sweet adroitly illustrates his thesis that times are changing.  Furthermore, if you (mostly people over 40) don’t keep up with the change, you’ll be left behind.

            Using the acronym TGIF (texting, Google, iPhone, Facebook), Sweet thoroughly shows the way the world has become conformed to information transfers via electronic media.  A simple example is the series of revolutions in what history will call the “Arab Spring.”  Totalitarian regimes in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt could not suppress the uprisings as rebels communicated by using cell phones and the internet.

            Sweet’s analysis of the TGIF world is good and helpful and inspiring.  Reading his work inspired me to read poetry.  This is something he strongly commends.  Also reading Viral, I felt inspired to begin Tweeting again.  I had stopped Tweeting in early 2011.  My account had been asleep for 17 months.  A sure sign a work is persuasive is when it leads to action.  I, the reader, took up two new actions (poetry and Twitter) as Sweet’s suggestion.  I am glad for both.

            However, I feel Sweet glosses over all that is good about the age of the press (the age of Gutenberg to use his terminology).  This is an age that gave the world Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jonathan Edwards, Watchman Nee, Billy Graham, Martin Luther King JR, Mother Teresa, and Dietrich Bonheoffer to name just a few.  Yet, Sweet, who himself comes from this generation is overly critical of it.  It’s quite hard to understand why he can’t make more of an effort to cite the contributions of the Gutenberg age alongside the wonders of the new age (he terms Google or ‘Googlers’).

            I don’t find fault with the idea that the world is changing quickly and radically.  It is – no question.  I don’t resist the change.  As I said, per Sweet’s suggestion, I am now Tweeting (along with blogging and Facebooking which I already do daily).  I support Sweet’s ideas and am excited by them as he is.  But, what I do not like is his suggestion that the current culture is closer to the notions of community and faith as proposed by Jesus than the previous.

            He thinks Googlers are far more likely to understand, appreciate, and seek out community as Jesus practiced and taught it than Gutenbergers.  Gutenbergers were too rules-oriented, atomistic, and individualistic.  Gutenbergers better understand Jesus’ teachings on community and holistic faith.  I love Leonard Sweet, but that is complete nonsense.  He needs to re-read Bonheoffer’s Life Together or Chuck Colson’s the Body or any of the works of Richard Foster.  Like any age, many Gutenbergers were off track when it comes to the Gospel.  Some, though, truly understand Jesus and their writings based on the Gospel have enlightened all Christians.

            Similarly, many Googlers are truly wise, fresh voices of faith who cast new light on the gospel.  But more Googlers are as lost and confused and far from Jesus as any Gutenbergers ever were.  It is not that Sweet’s observations are wrong; they’re just much exaggerated.  He’s so excited about the theological and spiritual implications of the new age of communication that he goes overboard in praising Googlers and criticizing Gutenbergers.  He plays Monday morning armchair quarterback, and he’s way too sophisticated to do that.  He knows better than to overgeneralize in that way.

            Leonard Sweet is such a compelling writer that I do recommend his book.  I think the reader will be informed and entertained.  But my recommendation comes with this warning.  As interesting and in some places spot on as his observations are, he is guilty of exaggeration and over generalization.  Buy and read his book, but read it with that in mind.