Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus

I think Meyers hits the nail on the head most of the time. Conservative Christians will call Meyers unorthodox, a heretic, and probably worse. The fact is, Meyers steps back from religious practices and religious politics and examines what Jesus said and did and works forward from there.I have a life long fascination with theology but the deeper I got (MA level) the more I saw theology was divisive. Catholics and Protestants divide and argue about their respective theologies, the right and left wings of the Catholic church are just as divided, and the division among Protestants is pretty remarkable, too. What's was bugging me (and now I find ironic and a bit humorous) is everyone with any credibility says God is a mystery. God is unknowable but God can be experienced. God reveals Gods-self to different people differently. Well everyone (for the most part) teaches that but no one believes it and lives it (Meyers is trying hard to live it). Instead of reveling in the mystery and saying none of actual know with certainty, essentially every denomination asserts its own truth and calls it inspired and no one gives a damn if their inspired truth might directly conflict with another's divine truth. Instead Christian's fight, and it wasn't just the Crusades nor is it always involve killing (but it often does). Christians divide into more and more sects which is 100% the opposite of what Jesus did. He called everyone into the community.Meyers says its time to get back to this radical notion of including everyone, even the alien, the widows, the orphans, and the lepers of our day and help each person become what they are capable of. He says this is following Jesus. It has nothing in particular to do with what you believe. One of his strongest points to support this is when he covers the Beatitudes, which explain how to live a blessed life and do not have a single statement of belief in them. When Constantine makes Christianity the state religion (well for practical purposes that happened), he calls the Council of Nicaea together and they form a creed to identify who's Christian and who isn't. The Nicene Creed is a statement of beliefs with nary a single statement of how to live. In 300 years, the Church went from being "the Way" where love was the prime commandment to being a belief system that no longer demanded you love your neighbor.Its easy to believe something and remarkable easy to defend that belief and offend others in the process. Arrogance is rampant in Christianity, when you actually examine people's beliefs. Everyone wants to believe the "truth" and no one wants to live in doubt that we can't really know God (and therefore God's truths) beyond what's been revealed in a rather ambiguous set of books we call the Bible. Regardless of what some conservatives might say, the Bible clearly isn't a proof text. Yet somehow several thousand different denominations all act like they hold the only keys to truth and act accordingly.What Meyers says is God is a mystery beyond his understanding and Jesus came here to teach us what our Father in heaven wants. What he wants is summed up in the Great Commandment (love God with everything and your neighbor as your self) and the beatitudes guide us in how to love our neighbor. John is clear that God is love. Meyers puts this simple idea of following Jesus, not worshiping him, into practice.The book isn't perfect, nor am I. I could quibble of a couple of issues and I think Meyers lets some anger show that detracts from his book. Over-all, I was really impressed and Robin Meyers earns on of my rare 5 star ratings.

The first time I came across Robin Meyers I was watching his Beecher Lectures from 2013 on YouTube (search for Robin Meyers - "UNDONE: Faith as Resistance to Ego"). He is compelling and challenging. His modus operandi is to be defiant in order to allow us to be more like Jesus.So, when I picked up this book suggested by a coworker I was not surprised by the defiant and unorthodox views found in the book, but they still are powerful and compelling nonetheless. With a title like "Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus" you know you are in for a ride.The core idea that Meyers is promoting is found in the title. He is preaching for us to put aside a version of the gospel that tells us to just believe in the Christ that came and died for us, and instead become disciples of the life of Jesus.He states, "Jesus did not come to die, rendering his life and teaching secondary. He died because of his life and teachings. He was killed for the things that he said and did. Then the claim of his first followers and his first community is that God raised him from the dead to undo the injustice done to him and to place a divine stamp of approval on his words and deeds.... Placing all the emphasis on the saving effect of the death of Christ as a cosmic bargain negates the life of Jesus."Meyers makes it clear that Jesus's ministry on the earth had very little to do with right belief and everything to do with right living and right being in this life. In regards to this he says "Consider this: there is not a single word in that sermon about what to believe, only words about what to do. It is a behavioral manifesto, not a propositional one. Yet three centuries later, when the Nicene Creed became the official oath of Christendom, there was not a single word in it about what to do, only words about what to believe!"With regards to the demands of the two types of Christianity he explains,"Christianity as a belief system requires nothing but acquiescence. Christianity as a way of life, as a path to follow, requires a second birth, the conquest of ego, and new eyes with which to see the world."Here are the key takeaways for me:* Jesus’s concern was to teach how to be in this world and now Christianity only seems to care about what you believe.* True religion is relationship, not righteousness.* Religion and politics do mix because your religion should change the way you relate to others in the world.* Prosperity gospel is bogus and has no foundation in Christianity.* This is the last series of questions posed and the summary of the book: "What if we could pull off a modern-day miracle and persuade a whole community of human beings that faith is characterized by what I have called from the pulpit “the end of striving”? What if we could shift the idea of salvation from survival of personal identity to radical freedom? Not freedom from—obligations, promises, fidelity, commitment, and self-sacrifice—but freedom to—live beyond angst, be delivered from self-pity, escape the prison of self, grow old gracefully, master the ego, live in harmony with the natural world, and break the chains of fear itself, especially the fear of death? What if we followed Jesus, instead of just worshiping Christ?"I really enjoyed this book. It presents a way of being in this wold that attempts to harmonize with the life and teachings of Jesus. It tells us to do things, not believe things.

Written by an American pastor who is also a professor in the philosophy at the Oklahoma City University, I found this book a little academic for me, although I really enjoyed the exploration of how the Christian religion has evolved over time. Like many children in the UK I attended church and Sunday school as a child, but the Christian religion never made sense to me. It seemed hypocritical at best and unbelievable at worst. Although I am ignorant of the history of Christianity, everything Robin Meyers' says makes perfect sense. Stripping away the liturgy and focusing on what Jesus said and did during his lifetime offers a spiritual lifestyle that can make a difference to both people and planet. Making a covenant to believe a set of beliefs about a supernatural being (who will then let you into 'heaven') enables Christians continue to live quite happily within the status quo and do little to change it. It's quite remarkable how we are still conditioning our children to believe this personal salvation stuff. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in exploring the impact of bad theology on our society and recovering the real message of Jesus.

Saving Jesus from the Church by Robin Meyers. This is by a pastor at Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma. I loved this book. It's about getting back to the true message of Jesus - and the idea that Jesus didn't want to be worshipped or to found a church, but was a teacher who wanted people to follow his example. The book will shock and inspire. Quoted passages include Marcus Borg, Annie Dillard and John Shelby Spong.

Meyers presents a new vision of Christianity where how people behave and act is more important than beliefs, and represents a return to the authentic path shown by Jesus.

Wanted to cut chunks of this out and stick them on the wall. Couldn't do that as it is in my Kindle. But I'm very glad to have read it.

Very good book searching for Truth!