Jesus isn’t interested in having fans and fan clubs; He wants truly committed followers who will give everything for His sake. That’s the message of Kyle Idleman’s new book: Not a Fan.
Idleman writes one of the most serious books about what it means to follow Christ I think I’ve ever read. In fact, much like Jesus, the author doesn’t pull his punches and cuts to the heart of the matter. In following Christ, there are no “halfways”, “most of the times”, or “excepts”. It’s all or nothing.
If there are ever those times where you think “does this passage about the rich young ruler apply to me? Does it mean I should sell everything I have and give it to the poor?”, the answer is a resounding “yes”. Don’t listen to a pastor who tells you that Jesus didn’t mean that for everyone. If you are not willing to give up everything, you cannot be His disciple. (Luke 14:33)
The subject matter is so intense in Not a Fan that Idleman has to put some comic relief in the footnotes. The first time I checked the footnotes, I thought, “This is inappropriate. It’s serious stuff here.” By the end of the book, I was praying for a funny footnote so I wouldn’t be crushed by the weight of conviction steeped in the message of the book. And Jesus had some funny lines that helped alleviate the tension of His message too. Just try to picture a camel going through the eye of a needle one time.
I have never read a book I would recommend so much as this one. If you’re a fan of Jesus, get this book, and find out what a follower looks like.
