Last summer over one hundred members of the Redeemer community read Diana Butler Bass' Christianity After Religion.  Last fall, we looked at the life, theology and radical discipleship of Dietrich Bonhoeffer during the Nazi rule in Germany.  We built on this during Lent 2013 through study of Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship.

This summer you are invited to continue the journey as we read Robin Meyers' The Underground Church.  Meyers tells how the church was a subversive, anti-Imperial movement in the early centuries.  He marks how Christianity, after being made the state religion by Constantine, shifted from opposing the Empire's call to war, bridging the gap between rich and poor, and engaging in works of mercy to both believers and non-believers, to become a "respectable" religion that supports the Empire's wars and argues ceaselessly over doctrine.  Christians are seen by most to be not loving, but judgmental.  He laments, "Christians now blend in so well with the dominant culture that we have effectively disappeared.  The community that used to give the Empire fits, now fits right in."

This is a book that will challenge your assumptions about faith and the Church and raise tough questions.  Meyers sets out the path we need to follow to once again become a subversive movement, opposing the Empire and engaging in works of love and compassion.

If you were not able to attend the kick-off plenary session on June 10 and would still like to join a group or buy a copy of the book, please speak to Paul Pynkoski or Marion Lynn at church on Sundays.  If you don't know who they are, please email connecting@theredeemer.ca and we'll connect you.