Blind Spots, by Collin Hansen

First of all I want to thank Crossway Publishers and Net Galley for making an Advance Readers Copy of this book available to me for review. The book will be released on April 30, 2015. You can pre-order a copy through Amazon, Westminster Books, Christian Book Distributors or your favorite Christian Book Store.

Collin Hansen brings a fresh look at the Western Church and how we need to think and act in regards to The Gospel and our Culture. This book will be an excellent book for Pastors and Lay Leaders of our churches to read together and dialogue about the contents to make sure that our churches are “well balanced” in how we proclaim The Gospel to the world.

 

Hansen focuses on three categories of Christians. He believes that if we honestly look at ourselves we can find that we belong to one of these categories due to our character traits, our gifting and our call by Christ to ministry.

The three categories are:

1.     The Courage Group – those standing valiantly for the Truth (Theological group)

2.     The Compassion Group – those who stress service, listening, engagement and compassion for our culture

3.     The Commissioned Group – those committed to building the church and reaching the lost

The book is short, only 116 pages, but Hansen does a great job detailing his thoughts on these three groups and focuses on their strengths (Courage, Compassion and Commissioned) and on their Blind Spots (their weaknesses).

I was encouraged by his thoughts on the Blind Spots as he reminds us, the Church, that we need each other. We can’t go it alone. The Courageous group is important, but if they only focus on their thoughts and desires the church will fail. They need to embrace the other two groups. The same is true for each group.

As Hansen points out, any Christian who focuses on his strengths and dismisses his weaknesses, and thus dismisses the other two groups, that Christian will fail to properly proclaim The Gospel to the world.

Several quotes from the book that I found to be thought provoking:

1.     The problem with Blind Spots is that they tend to hide behind good traits. Your weakness is often the flip side of your strength.

2.     The Church must follow Christ command to love our neighbors whether or not we ever receive thank you notes.

3.     Belief that the Great Commission still applies to us today separates evangelicals from churches that have sued for peace with our pluralistic age.

4.     Commissioned Churches cannot be content with the status quo, because eternity is at stake.

5.     Unless you contextualize your mission with honest understanding of local culture, you merely add to the noise, because you will become accommodated to the spirit of the age.

I believe that this simple little book will be a revolutionary thought provoker for many churches. We need to engage our culture, but we need to be careful to not dilute The Good News of Jesus Christ. We need all three types of Christians in our churches pulling together to bring a balanced ministry to our lost world.

Read, think, discuss and decide what you will do!