Radically Normal, by Josh Kelley

I really liked Josh Kelley's book Radically Normal: You Don't Have to Live Crazy to Follow Jesus.  Before I talk about the content of the book, I want to mention one reason I especially like it.  I've read many books by popular pastor/authors.  Publishers like these guys.  They grow a big church, gain some notoriety for their congregation size or growth, and have a ready audience of several thousand.  Publishers figure that even if the book isn't that great, they can count on sales of at least a few thousand from the pastor's congregation.  As Kelley says, he grew a congregation of 100 to 75 under his leadership, and eventually shut the place down.  Not only is there a high level of humility in this, it is also evidence that a publisher took a chance on him due to the quality of the work rather than the security of a ready reader base.

Aside from the question of the size of Kelley's congregation, Radically Normal is an enjoyable and challenging take on the Christian life.  Kelley describes radically normal Christianity as "the biblical art of fully engaging this life while focusing on the next."  The Christian life is about maintaining a balance between complacency and obsessiveness.  On one hand, "the distractions of this life are constantly pulling us away from God."  On the other hand, some Christians get hung up on dos and don'ts (mostly don'ts).

With good-natured aplomb, Kelley covers a spectrum of life choices and emphases, like work, finances, celebration, and church life, navigating between the two extremes.  He calls on Christians not to be dismissive of the blessings of this life.  He writes, "the more I've learned to properly enjoy earthly things, the more I long for heaven."  Further, speaking of creation care specifically, but applying this attitude more generally, he writes, "Rather than treat this world like a hotel room that someone else will clean up, we should treat it like a lakeside cabin that our boss let us borrow for the weekend."

Christians live between the already and the not yet, the temporal and the eternal, the kingdom of this world and the eternal kingdom.  We walk the line between complacency and obsessiveness, keeping our eyes on the promise of heaven while seeing the glory of heaven in the everyday.  Kelley is a worthy guide on this path.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!