The saints of old "acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13b). This is no less true for Christians today; as Paul writes, "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20a). But though we are on the road to that homeland, we are not there yet.  It is from this understanding of Christians as pilgrims--wayfaring strangers on the road to their true home but living in the meantime in a foreign land--that Rev. Jason J. Stellman has written Dual Citizens: Worship and Life Between the Already and the Not Yet. Stellman wrestles with the implications of the Christian's dual citizenship in the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man, showing that the great challenge for believers today is maintaining their distinctiveness as redeemed people. Believers are free to participate in culture (though the Bible guides the way they participate), but they must not so immerse themselves in it that they obscure their true identities. Dual Citizens is a call for believers to see the present from the standpoint of the future, for doing so will enable them to see their lives, with all their trials and triumphs, as part of God's great unfolding story.
Endorsements "The subject of Christ and culture has never been as popular among conservative Protestants in the United States as it is today, and the topic has never needed as much attention from the perspective of the church. It gets that attention in this important book by Jason Stellman. Dual Citizens will certainly upset those used to thinking of Christ as mainly the transformer of culture. But for genuine wisdom not only on the culture wars, but on the culture, ways, and habits of the church, Stellman's discussion is the place to go." --Dr. D. G. Hart Director of academic programs Intercollegiate Studies Institute Wilmington, Delaware
"For too long I struggled to recommend reading on the subject of living the Christian life as a 'resident alien.' Often I was reduced to directing readers to liberal Methodists (such as Hauerwas and Willimon) as the best embodiment of Christian convictions. At last I can point to practice that is firmly grounded in Reformed theology. Dual Citizens is written by someone who loves the world: its movies, its music, and its authors. But this is a rightly ordered love because it is a penultimate love. Here is a robust pilgrim theology that marches on to Zion while avoiding the pitfalls of asceticism and legalism. By putting earthly kingdoms in their proper place, Pastor Stellman demonstrates how rightly to use the present world even as one eagerly awaits the next." --Mr. John Muether Professor of church history/library director Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando, Florida Excerpts
Page vi - I do not know of a book quite like this one. It is a devotional theology of the Christian life that is far richer than the standard fare on offer in the "spirituality" and "Christian disciplines" sections of Christian bookstores. Yet it is also a down-to-earth account of how the gospel and its public ministry of Word and sacrament provide the right coordinates for our pilgrimage at a time when we are easily drawn off course by the winds of fashion and consumer tastes. After reading this book, you will doubtless be provoked, as I was, not only to ponder our precarious location at the intersection of "this present evil age" and "the age to come," but to praise the God who leads us by his Word and Spirit as we journey on. Digesting this book will lead you to sing with greater gusto those closing words of another hymn: "Solid joys and lasting treasures, none but Zion's children know."
Page ix - Consumed as we are with the details of our individual lives, we need to step back and consider our stories in the light of the divine drama that God is directing on a cosmic scale (chapter 8). Seeing ourselves in light of God's yet-unfulfilled promises should cause us to recognize immediately that our heavenly citizenship makes the trifles of Egypt, after which the world chases, utterly unworthy of our ultimate affection (chapter 9). What is worthy of our affection, however, is that heavenly treasure God has laid in store for us, having hardwired a longing for eternity into our hearts (chapter 10). Our dual citizenship, then, allows us to wait eagerly for eternal glory while seeing the temporal blessings of earth as gifts of God not to be feared but enjoyed in their proper place and context (chapter 11).
Page 11 - Since the cultural revolution of the 1960s, the more socially "enlightened" among us have expressed deep concerns about the dividedness of the world and those living in it. Whether heard in John Lennon's appeal to "Come Together," Rodney King's question, "Can't we all just get along?" or Bono's longing for the "Kingdom Come, when all the colors will bleed into one," in the opinion of many, the more distinctions we make, the more divided and alienated we become.
While Christians would certainly agree that many divisions have been unnecessary and wrong (such as racial divisions), some distinctions must be maintained. The proper question, then, is not whether we should make distinctions in life or abandon them, but which distinctions are legitimate and which are not? By all accounts, this is a much more difficult issue to tackle, causing us at times to wish the issue were as simple as getting along or giving peace a chance.
In the realm of Christian theology and practice, there is an age-old distinction that seems to have fallen on hard times of late--one alluded to in the subtitle of this book.
Page 12 - Before sin entered into the Genesis narrative, there was no sharp division between sacred and secular activity, but all aspects of man's life--whether tending the garden or communing with his Creator--were considered holy.
Page 20 - What should a church's calendar look like? To what degree should the church seek to compete with the myriad activities and events that are constantly pulling the people of God in a thousand different directions? And more to our point, does the church need to mirror the popular culture in order to reach the lost without losing the reached?
Page 27 - The problem is that contemporary culture is deaf to the things that Christianity has to say, and deaf ears must be unstopped not with drum sets and drama, but with "the glorious gospel of the blessed God" (1 Tim. 1:11).
Page 48 - One of the ways we allow the cross of Christ to challenge our understanding of the Christian mission is by accepting the biblical idea that our religion, unlike virtually all others, actually seems to work best when it is a minority faith bereft of worldly pomp, prestige, and power.
Page 65 - One cannot help but wonder whether, in our own little parcel of earth, we Americans haven't to some degree bought in to the fairy tale that there is a protective force field around our nation that precludes our complicity in an agenda that is anything but godly and divinely favored. Page 76 - Rather than slick, program-driven, and desperate attempts at "relevance" (defined by the culture), we need a ministry that simply opens the Scriptures and preaches from them Christ crucified and risen, then gives the bread and the cup to the hungry and thirsty pilgrims for whom He was sacrificed and raised.
Page 87 - Whether it is a particular sin with which we are struggling or an inexplicable feeling of distance from God, the fact is that we, like the apostle Paul, often feel as though we are "punished, and yet not killed" (2 Cor. 6:9). The root cause of this malady, more often than not, is that our outlook is skewed--we are approaching our situations egocentrically rather than theocentrically, from a me-centered rather than a God-centered perspective.
Page 119 - Now to argue from the lesser to the greater, if the sub-human created order can recognize that something about its current status is amiss, it would seem to follow that the same recognition can be found in those who, unlike the rest of creation, are made in the very image and likeness of the Creator. If, as we have already seen, the book of Ecclesiastes is a description of the vanity of life "under the sun," then it seems not only reasonable but experiential that all who look at earth from this vantage point can tell, at least intuitively, that this age is but an un-merry merry-go-round, a wild goose chase without the wild goose.
Page 149 - But let us always remember that the ever-present sense of "not yet" that frustrates us throughout this age does not negate the dynamic "already" that was inaugurated as our risen and ascended Lord bestowed on His church the gift of the Spirit as an engagement ring, assuring us of our future glorification. Because the cross was followed by an empty tomb, we must not fail to incorporate the resurrection into our understanding of Christian living. We love to "tsk, tsk" the Catholics because their crucifixes all have a dead Jesus on them. But as Protestants, does our boast in an empty cross have ramifications for sanctification or only for church décor?
About the Author 
The Rev. Jason J. Stellman is a native of Orange County, California, and became a believer through the ministry of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa in 1989. While under the care of Calvary Chapel, he served as a missionary and church planter in Uganda (1991-1992) and in Hungary (1994-2000). After coming to understand and embrace Reformed theology, Rev. Stellman received his M.Div. degree from Westminster Seminary California, where he studied under such scholars as Dr. Michael Horton, Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, and Dr. D. G. Hart. After graduation, he was ordained by the Pacific Northwest Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America and called to plant Exile Presbyterian Church in the Seattle area. Rev. Stellman has written articles for Modern Reformation and Tabletalk magazines. Dual Citizens is his first book. He lives in Washington state with his wife, Alida, their daughters, Ainsley and Fiona, and their son, Maddoc.
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