Theirs is the Kingdom

Theirs is the Kingdom.  Celebrating the Gospel in Urban America.

By Robert D. Lupton

Why this book matters: 

Bob Lupton, perhaps better than anyone else, helps us to see how we have blinders on when it comes to seeing God at work in the inner-city.  He unpacks our prejudice and our unwitting ineffectiveness not by being preachy but by sharing his own stories from his friends and neighbors.  He helps to change our perspective of the poor from being “objects of our ministry” into being fellow-subjects of the kingdom. 

Overview: 

Written in a series of vignettes, the chapters in this book range from less than a page to 2 or 3 at most.  Since the topics range around issues of materialism, prejudice, poverty, race and the like. .  the book is more of a devotional than a clearly outlined pattern that leads from A to Z.  What about family violence?  When is giving Christmas gifts to kids in the city done poorly?  Who are the “truly worthy poor”? What is efficiency and what is welfare?   These and many similar topics are wrestled with in a very accessible manner.

Chapter worth the price of the book:  

Foxes Have Holes.  In which the author demonstrates that we take for granted our warm showers, comfortable beds, our cars and our indignity toward others.

Quote:

The world is urbanizing.  The city is our opportunity to see firsthand how God is doing his creative work in our day.  It is both fearful and wonderful, and invitation to death and incomparable life.  And it is ours to discover (from the afterward).

If you liked this book you may want to consider:

And You Call Yourself A Christian: Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life.  by Dr.  Robert Lupton.

Restoring at Risk Communities.  Doing it Together and Doing it Right.   John Perkins, editor.

Real Hope in Chicago.  By Wayne Gordon.