That title pulled me in. I had just heard John Mark Comer recommend Mark Sayers as an author when I saw the opportunity to review this book from Moody Publishing.
This is a book I will revisit in a different season of life. It was more historical and sociological than I was anticipating. It was an insightful walk through history looking at what Sayers calls “gray zones” in history. The space and time of tension and uprise before the change. A majority of the book explains different eras of this distinct historical change as well as why they tend to develop and lead to it. The last part of the book talks about what it looks like to offer peace, confidence, and hope in these spaces.
Mark Sayers did a great job with the historical background and implications as well as societal development of these gray zones and post change. The last part of the book talks about the church as a whole and Christians in positions of leadership offering that non-anxious presence. For me I think I was hoping for that section to be more developed. There were some definite take aways of framework of these anxious spaces and why it impacts history for better or worse. It also was a good encouragement for the church and leaders to be intentional with offering guidance, direction, and support that is founded in peace and humility. Sayers was encouraging in that he offers hope that this tension in this gray zone era can lead to revival and renewal.
I would recommend this book for those looking for a deeper historical and sociological framework on this era we are living through. Also, those looking for the encouragement to be part of the renewal and revitalization of the Church and culture.
“We have been taught by the great strongholds of our day, whether formed with a structure of secularism or cultural Christianity (or a hybrid of both), that pressure is a bad thing. That it is possible to live life and walk through the raindrops without getting wet. So as the cultural pressure increases against the church in our gray zone moment and we find ourselves in a wilderness, those who turn to God, who choose not to run from the wilderness, who seek His presence in the wilderness, will be transformed with spiritual authority.”
Mark Sayer
** I was given a copy to review for Moody Publishers. All opinions are my own.
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