Not a Fan: Book Review

**Disclaimer:  If you totally loved the book, and grew from it, please feel free to share how you’ve grown from it in the comments section.  I don’t intend/want for you to feel like I’m taking away from that growth!

I’ve never actually written a book review, but like many of you Amazon junkies I have read hundreds of them. This qualifies me, right? My goal here is to be brief, honest and hopefully helpful.  The book being reviewed here is “Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus” by Kyle Idleman.  

Understand me first off, I’m not a theologian with loads of credentials, I’m a man with half a semester of seminary who decided he wanted to pursue a nursing career because he felt like being more like Jesus drew him to the sick, dying, and those who needed their butts wiped.   I was only in half a semester and I found myself exhausted by the status quo.  This book, if anything, reminded me of that exhaustion.

 

The overarching theme from this book is two-fold.  Firstly, it attempts to separate people who love Jesus from those who don’t by differentiating knowing about someone and actually knowing someone.  Much like that guy at work who knows every football stat about LSU but doesn’t know any of the players personally (A fan).  Secondly, the book attempts to tell the reader what it means to know Jesus (Be a follower).  These are lofty goals, but dangerous in that it presents an impossible gospel, one that really isn’t all that new, or great of news.

Part 1: Fan or Follower? An honest diagnosis

This section is seven chapters long and begins by talking about defining the relationship comparing dating with a relationship with God.  This section beckons you to question your commitment.   Are you just kind of into the benefits of God or are you into God himself?  Again, logical, good questions, but it’s the answers Idleman presents that lead to dangerous conclusions.  As I read through this section I found myself getting more and more depressed, angry, hurt, and confused.  I thought I was a Christian, but am I?

Nicodemus is described as only wanting to come to Jesus at night because of the great cost to his reputation if he were to approach Jesus during the day.  This assumes two things about this story, that one Nicodemus was intentional with his nightly approach and that two Jesus didn’t think of Nicodemus as a true follower because of this choice.  What about Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Wait, where is the precursor “make sure it costs you something?”  Before we start diving into too much scripture let’s make sure we understand something here, there are three situations that must be understood in order to understand Jesus more clearly.  There is the pre-Jesus situation, there is the during Jesus situation, and there is the after the Cross situation.  The after the cross situation changes everything, and this book COMPLETELY misses this.

The Holy Spirit breathing chapter of this book basically says as you repent you breathe out areas for the Holy Spirit to come into as you breathe in.  The problem with this is the scriptures say as a believer your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.  So, is he only partially moved in then?  Waiting for you to kick the roommates out before he fully moves in?  Sounds like what Jesus did wasn’t enough, you’ve got a lot of work to do in order for your sweet, powerful God of a roommate to come and live with you. 

Basically these 7 chapters are like a repetition of:  This is what it means to be a fan (know about stuff, and even put on the religious aspects of stuff, like a person believing the going to church saves them) and this is what it means to be a follower (someone who’s willing to give money to ministry without bitterness, and fully surrender to Jesus, every area of their life).

Part 2: an invitation to follow (the unedited version)

This guy seems to really enjoy making others feel like they don’t add up.  Which in reality is true, none of us do, that’s why we needed the cross, that’s why we needed Jesus!!  But, Idleman gets so infatuated with what we do, that he fails to truly preach what Jesus DID! 

The first chapter talks about Jesus calling everyone, but leaves you questioning everything when he quotes the goats and the lamb’s parable.  He makes you wonder who will actually be saved and what else you can do….this is a problem, because Jesus said it is finished.  Again, this comes down to during Jesus, and post-Cross.  In this section the author describes a follower as a slave, who loves Jesus so much they literally die to everything they desire, everything they are, and everyone around them.  The problem is Jesus is beckoning those around him to follow him, and he’s telling them “hey you’re probably gonna die, and you will definitely lose everything you care about because stuff is gonna get real crazy for a while if you follow me.”  He wasn’t talking to post-cross Christians, he was talking to the crowds who wanted to follow him because he was amazing!  Imagine your favorite celebrity saying to you “hey you want to be in movies with me?”  “Yes please!” “You can be, but it takes hours, and days of sleepless nights, and ridiculous amounts of studying, and you’ll probably end up losing your family because you won’t have time for them, and honestly, you could die from stress.”  Jesus was a radical celebrity with miraculous powers; of course there is sacrifice to follow him during his life.  But post-cross, the sacrifices are done!  The deaths are done!  There is no come and die anymore!!  You aren’t a slave; you are a son/daughter of the king!!  It is finished.

In this book the gospel is gone, and it’s all about what you are doing to be a “follower.” It has nothing to do with what Jesus accomplished on the cross!  This book doesn’t offer hope, or grace or a promise of a new soul, and heart made of flesh.  It offers work, and death, and anguish.  This was a message for another time, we are amazingly blessed to live in a new covenant with God, that promises God does all the work and gives us a new nature, with new desires, and we are made followers with a seal placed on our hearts from the Holy Spirit, not by following some guys’ formula in a book.

Part 3: following jesus-wherever. whenever. whatever.

This section is geared toward those who keep offering excuses as to why they aren’t ready to take the plunge.  It’s basically an altar call.  I don’t have any qualms with this section per se except he doesn’t really offer the gospel message.  Idleman asks everyone to repent and then follow Jesus.  The problem with this theology is it’s not in the right order per se.  Again, it makes the gospel about you, not Jesus.  If you chose to receive Jesus’ then you’ll receive a new heart, a new mind, and repentance will come because you sincerely won’t want to live any other way, because it simply just doesn’t make since to do so.  Jesus plus nothing.  That’s the gospel.  This man wants it to be Jesus plus repentance.

Conclusion:

I didn’t hate this book.  I hated that Jesus was made less.  I hated that people are reading this experiencing large amounts of shame, guilt, and pure self-hatred all the while calling it “Conviction.”  There is no more condemnation for those that believe, the work is done.  God wasn’t stupid when He sent His son to die, He knew you would sin before, during and after you accepted His son….that’s why it’s called grace.  I felt like great questions were asked, but horrible, dangerous and even soul destroying answers were presented.   For a perspective on Grace to help balance out the works based-ness of this book check out “God Without Religion” by Andrew Farley and “One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World” by Tullian Tchividjian. 

Thanks for reading.