“The Fine Line: Re-envisioning the Gap Between Christ and Culture,” by Kary Oberbrunner, is about how the Christian relates to our culture. There are separatists, who avoid the culture in order to remain pure. And there are conformists, who indulge in the culture. Most evangelicals I know would fall in the conformist camp. We like our TV shows, pop music, movies of whatever rating. We justify it by saying we need to relate to our secular culture. It’s a matter of relevance.

Oberbrunner says neither the separatists nor the conformists are relevant.

• Separatists create their own insulated Christian subculture, and the world can’t relate to it (and doesn’t feel welcome there); they are out of touch.
• Christian conformists are not much different from secular people. They try so hard to fit in with the world, that the world doesn’t see anything particularly spiritual about them.

Conformists, he says, are great at justifying their behavior, whether it involves watching R-rated movies or not attending church, and sometimes even consider themselves enlightened. Some even flaunt their “liberty,” pushing the line and justifying their extreme choices as trying to become all things to all people.

“We set out to think like the world, dress like the world, and act like the world in order to reach the world. The odd thing is that most of the world actually wants something different than itself….Those of us who embrace this strategy are the most uncreative and unoriginal. We are merely copycats of culture.”

Oberbrunner adds, “Relevance is something others believe about us, not what we believe about ourselves….A church can say it is relevant and even believe it’s relevant. But unless the surrounding community believes this, that church isn’t relevant.”

What the world needs, Oberbrunner says, is Transformists. You get what he’s talking about, but he doesn’t paint a very good picture. The first couple chapters were excellent, but after that it was uneven. But still some good stuff.

The best chapter is chapter 7, “The Girl Bashers” (the title comes from an amazing opening illustration). It talks about people who withdraw from the church, particularly people who grew up in the separatist camp and rebel against the church. 

So what road should people take who’ve been burned by the church? He talks about that, always insisting that every Christian needs a community of faith–whatever that might look like. And it doesn’t need to look like a building with a steeple.

After that, the book seems to lose focus. Several later chapters tell fascinating stories of “transformists,” and I was moved by them. And yet, something just didn’t fit. I’m not sure what.