Ed Stetzer, Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation. B and H Books, 2012.
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LifeandLeadership.com Summary
I have always liked Ed Stetzer’s writings. In my opinion, this is one of his best. It is an excellent, readable integration of theology of mission, ecclesiology, and missional spirituality. Helpful DVD and small group workbook combinations make this ideal for congregational use.
The book begins with a strong truth from biblical teaching of the kindgdom: Jesus is indeed sovereign, and the world system is in an illegitimate rebellion, falsely claiming an authority that seems real, but is indeed illusory and temporal. We, however, are in “rebellion against their rebellion,” announcing and seeking to live out the reality that God rules everything. Stetzer says:
Though we feel outnumbered and highly unpopular at times by clinging to our Christian ideals, though we make ourselves subject to all kinds of criticism and misunderstanding by resisting the widely held opinions of our friends and neighbors, we can’t help but recognize a tension that keeps us from following where the leader of this rebellion wants to take us. As much as we may feel obligated by our family histories, or as willing as we may be to at least consider the validity of these differing viewpoints, there’s no common ground for us to stand on. Our aims are incompatible. As Christians, we don’t join an illegitimate rebellion. Instead, we live for King Jesus in contrast to those around us. We live in loyalty to the very One the world rebels against. (5-6)
This rebellion involves a choice between two extremes in our context. One is to timidly run and hide. Another is to “defiantly stand our ground in open, declared warfare.” Stetzer suggests a third option, that we “go underground,” and “live out the gospel and its implications in subversive ways.” He describes:
We go under (sub) where people “out there” don’t expect to see and experience grace. We leave our home court (the church) and go to their home court (the world). And then when they least expect it, Jesus shows up in their world, inviting them to draw near to him through our random acts of kindness. So rather than (or maybe in addition to) inviting the unbeliever to the Sunday morning show, we demonstrate our faith by how we live, relate, and care. Others see that life with Jesus is not about going to a place at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday. Life with Jesus is now demonstrated where they are. The last place they ever thought to look. Right in the middle of where they live, work, and play. We go there. (6-7)
This is Stetzer’s invitation for us to radically live the kingdom life and let God work through this witness to surprise us and others with how he pushes back the darkness with the light of his love and grace. He continues:
While not everything will be made perfectly right on this earth or in this era, we have opportunities to witness the kingdom’s reality this week on every street, in every neighborhood, and in every nation of the world. The kingdom of God lives. (8)
Stetzer divides the book into three sections:
Part I – A Subversive Way of Thinking – Drawing upon the subversive motif describe above, he shows from the Matthew 13 parables how the “secrets of the kingdom” are revealed through the metaphors of “seed,” “yeast,” “weed,” “joy,” “treasure,” and other figures. The point is that “Kingdom work is typically most recognizable by how small it is.” (38) He gives story after story of the sacrificial love and caring that is characteristic of the kingdom, and how this has effects that are so much larger proportionally that they can only be from God. People are touched deeply, healed, loved, cared for, sacrificed for in Jesus’ style, and God’s kingdom grows exponentially as a result. The antithesis of this is Christians aligning with power as if we can put the darkness out of business by our own efforts. Only God can bring kingdom growth. Our role is subversive kingdom living. We live in between the time that the Christ announced and began the kingdom and the point in the future where he will consumate his rule.
In this sovereignly ordained meantime, we have an obligation to represent what the kingdom of God looks like, as seen in stark contrast to the world around us. Compelled by a vision of Christ’s coming rule—when relationships will be restored, races reconciled, differences settled, and injustices made right—we launch into a campaign to subvert the world’s temporary hold on our attitudes and experiences. We live out God’s kingdom through our lifestyle, and we demonstrate his kingdom through our ministry and service. The kingdom is already, and we announce the “not yet” as we live toward its coming—as we work for the kingdom and as we wait for the consummation of that kingdom. (55)
We do this in three ways: 1) sharing Jesus with a broken world, 2) alleviating the needs around us, and 3) by focusing on both the local community and the larger world.
Part II – A Subversive Way of Life – Stetzer launches from the parables of the ten virgins and the talents in Matthew 25, the sermon on the Mount, and other passsages to illustrate the way we should live between the first and second comings of Jesus. We both wait and are active in stewarding the gifts and opportunities God gives us, cultivating the “uncommonly good” inner life (e.g. integrity, controlled anger, kindness, purity), treating others in radically different and redemptive ways, and increasingly putting to death the idols we are prone to serve.
Part III – A Subversive Plan of Action – He encourages each person to ask two questions: 1) What is the King’s mission? and 2) What is my role in the King’s mission? He underscores:
The church doesn’t have a mission; the mission has a church. God, who by nature is on purpose and on task, has invited people like us, gathered in churches like ours, to join him in fulfilling his chief desire. And that mission is this: for God to be glorified. (166)
On the other hand, the church “remains his central tool for accomplishing the subversive kingdom’s agenda.” (169) He stresses that:
Our subversive plan of action is to live for God’s glory, which is most vividly expressed in the sharing and receiving of the gospel, which is most powerfully administered through the church — people who have been set free by God from the results of sin and death to become part of his plan for setting others free as well. (175)
Here Stetzer develops the idea that the church is a sign, foretaste, and instrument of the kingdom of God.
From the Publisher This world is a dark, evil, and broken place – more corrosive and corrupting than we even realize since we sit here in the middle of it, with nothing else to compare it to. But for those who know that Christ is coming to establish a new and perfect order, ours is not just a world to endure but a world to invade. Believers have not been stationed here on earth merely to subsist but to actively subvert the enemy’s attempts at blinding people in unbelief and burying them under heartbreaking loads of human need.
The kingdom of God changes all that.
Ed Stetzer’s Subversive Kingdom is a personal call for Christians to reorient their thinking and lifestyle to match what Jesus described of His people in Scripture, while teaming up with other believers through their churches to bring light into a dying and darkening culture. Stetzer uses the parables of Christ to unlock the “kingdom secrets” that bring this mysterious concept within understandable reach, while urging Christians to turn this knowledge into practical, everyday, ongoing missions designed to set people free from lives headed for hopelessness.
About the Author
Ed Stetzer is vice president of research and ministry development at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tennessee. He holds two masters and two doctoral degrees and has written dozens of articles and acclaimed books including Planting Missional Churches, Breaking the Missional Code, Comeback Churches, and Lost and Found. Ed and his wife, Donna, have three daughters and live in Nashville, Tennessee.
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