Brett McCracken - Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community

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As I read through Uncomfortable , I am strangely comforted. With all the talk about young Christians being disenchanted with the local church, it is refreshing to hear Brett McCracken, a Millennial, speak so affirmatively on her behalf. I am moved by Bretts grown-up perspective in these pages, a perspective that champions the church as a family not a club, a sinners hospital not a social network, and a commitment not a consumer product. For any serious Christian, Bretts words are a wake-up call to engageindeed, to love and devote ourselves tothis often messy, high-maintenance, painfully ordinary but also glorious, life-giving, and forever-beloved band of misfits that Jesus calls his wife. If Jesus has so tethered himself to the church, dare we untether ourselves from her? This book is a must-read.

Scott Sauls, senior pastor, Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee; author, Jesus Outside the Lines ; Befriend ; and From Weakness to Strength

In a generation of dissatisfied consumers hoping to find our perfectly customized Dream Church, Brett McCracken is the herald of a counterintuitive gospel: Take comfort! Church is supposed to be uncomfortable! Thats because McCracken knows its precisely in embracing the uncomfortable truths of the gospel and immersing ourselves in the uncomfortable unity-in-diversity of the body that we are transformed into the image of Christthe God who endured the discomfort of the cross to bring us resurrection life. In that sense, Uncomfortable is a sharp application of Christs perennial call to come and die to the particular temptations of the North American church. A helpful corrective and an ultimately hopeful invitation.

Derek Rishmawy, blogger, Reformedish ; cohost, Mere Fidelity podcast

As an inhabitant of the Western world, I take comfort for granted, and I like it that way. I expect to wear comfortable clothes, sleep in a comfortable bed, and have comforting food in the refrigerator. All my cultural conditioning teaches me to expectand demandcomfort. Yet as a pastor and a disciple, I know that the demands of the gospel, while ultimately comforting, frequently are not comfortable. In this excellent book, Brett McCracken identifies and prods around many of the things that make Christian community uncomfortable: he had me itching and scratching! Brett demonstrates how rather than fleeing discomfort we need to lean into it, and in so doing find what is more deeply satisfying than the shallow comforts of our consumer age. I encourage you to read this book and embrace the itch!

Matthew Hosier, pastor, Gateway Church, Poole, United Kingdom; contributor, thinktheology blog

We live in a culture oriented entirely toward comfort, and the church is not immune from its lure. Brett McCracken offers a timely and needed reminder that the call for Christians is a different one, but one that brings blessings richer than mere comfort. Uncomfortable will make you uncomfortable in the best of ways. Every believer needs to read this book and heed its call.

Karen Swallow Prior, author, Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More: Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist

Ahhhh, comfort. Its the siren call to our human hearts, beckoning us to find, acquire, and maintain lives of ease. Such a bent, however, is incompatible with a vibrant Christian faith lived within a thriving Christian community. In Uncomfortable , Brett McCracken alerts us to the toxic ways comfort infects and hinders our faithand how God meets our desire for comfort in gloriously unexpected ways. McCracken urges us to seek something greater than comfort: true life and true faith in Christ, found just beyond the borders of our comfort zone.

Erin Straza, author, Comfort Detox ; managing editor, Christ and Pop Culture

Americans are experts at avoiding the uncomfortablebe it awkward conversations, conflicted relationships, or lifestyle changes. But Jesus points us to a better way. In this book, McCracken shows us how the greatest glories for disciples of Jesus are often found in the most uncomfortable places his voice calls us and how the real church is not an idealized utopia beyond the fray of history, but rather Jesus powerfully present among his often muddled, messy, and awkwardyes, uncomfortablebands of followers today.

Joshua Ryan Butler, pastor, Imago Dei Community, Portland, Oregon; author, The Skeletons in Gods Closet and The Pursuing God

Brett McCracken challenges us to face one of the greatest fears of contemporary culture: discomfort. Rather than retreating into a soothing world where everyones just like me or embracing the distractions of technology and consumerism, Brett calls us to life in community with Gods people, where awkwardness, disappointment, and frustration are the norm. Its in this way of lifeembracing the uncomfortablethat well find the richest experience of Gods grace and the community our hearts truly desire. In a world where church is often just one more consumeristic choice, this is a much-needed book.

Mike Cosper, founder and director, Harbor Institute for Faith and Culture

Anyone who looks closely at modern Christian life can see signs of the insidious self-centeredness by which we sinners are tempted to transform the gospel into something that suits our tastes and fits our plans. McCracken carries out that close examination; in fact, in this book he equips us to pursue that false comfort into all of its hiding places and root it out in Jesuss name and for the sake of the gospel.

Fred Sanders, professor of theology, Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University

Sometimes church feels like an annoying family member you would rather see only at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We want a church that is cool and suits our tastes, not the frustrating institution that carries around the shame of the cross. Bretts smoothly written book has cast all the awkwardness of church into a new and meaningful light for me. Like a Puritan voice for the cool, anti-institutional, twenty-first-century Christian, Brett charges his readers to stay and commit to the church as Christs bride.

Emily Belz, journalist, World Magazine

Uncomfortable

Uncomfortable

The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community

Brett McCracken

Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community

Copyright 2017 by Brett McCracken

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

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