Real Christians Don't Dance!: Sorting the Truth from the Trappings in a Born-Again Culture

From the back cover of the book: Probing and questioning, John Fischer challenges believers to evaluate their Christian experience and assumptions. For many, traditions and trappings have become a protective and restrictive cocoon, inhibiting the growth of their faith. Discovering the essence of faith restores the vitality of freedom in Christ and cuts away those issues that distract from the important ones. "In it not of it," the statement was made When Christian One faced the world much afraid. "In it not of it," the call was made clear, But Christian One got something stuck in his ear. "Not in it or of it" was the thing that he heard. And knowing the world was painfully absurd. He welcomed the safety of pious retreat And went to the potluck for something to eat. (Excerpt from "The Ins and Outs of It" p.132) Available now is the online edition of Real Christians Don't Dance (with the "don't" crossed out) which you will find by entering the title in a Google, Yahoo, or MSN search. Read the whole book online before you buy it. Author John Fischer grew up in a mainline evangelical denomination and has travelled the contemporaray Christian music circuit for many years. As an expert "insider," he has thought long and hard about what is essential Christianity and what are simply cultural appendages that have become attached over a period of time. Free from sarcasm and ridicule, Real Christians Don't Dance challenges the evangelical Church to identify true Christianity from the sub-culture that has developed around it, to discover what is real obedience and love. Readers may discover in their lives more tradition than truth, more Christianity than Christ, more fundamentalism than faith, more law than love.

A hard look at the traditional, and often not-Biblically based, cultural practices of the church. However, this book is much more than a nit-pickers fest as Fischer leads the reader into seeking a deeper relationship with Christ by weeding through unbiblical traditions. Also check out "True Believers Don't Ask Why"

First of all, do not be mislead by the title. On the book cover, the word "don't" is crossed out in red ink, and an exclamation point is added after the word "dance". This book is written by John Fischer, veteran songwriter of Christian Music long before anyone was ever talking about something called "Contemporary Christian Music". (Chances are if you've been to a church retreat or camp, you may well have sung one of his around the campfire.) He is also a popular speaker and talented writer of fiction and non-fiction (a longtime columnist for "CCM" magazine). He writes as one who has grown up in within the Evangelical Christian sub-culture and has had to sort out just what in his life was really his and truly Christian, and what is simply traditions handed down to him. In the book, he likens the process to peeling the skin off an orange; he has to sort out the juicy part from the white stuff surrounding it, deciding what to keep and what to discard. _Real Christians Don't Dance_ is a collection of personal essays and reflections centered more or less on the theme of sorting out what in the Christian life is real. As one who has been through the same sorting out process, I heartily recommend this book. A quote might be illustrative here: "Which is easier to follow: 'real Christians don't envy' or 'real Christians don't dance'? Which one gets noticed first: 'real Christians don't lust' or 'real Christians don't smoke'? Which is harder to comply with: 'real Christians love their enemies' or 'real Christians go to church on Sundays?'" (page 16). I've in particular directed many people to this book because of the essay "Cutting In" (pp. 116-117). John Fischer is one of only a few authors I've ever encountered who is willing to talk about the pain that a _father_ feels over the miscarriage of his unborn son or daughter. Thanks, John; it helped. His personal reflections are continued in _True Believers Don't Ask Why_ and _Making Real What I Already Believe_. Many of these themes also appear in his novel _Saint Ben_.