Mere Churchianity (a book review)
Several years ago I wrote a series of blogs about a great book I had read called "I'm Fine With God, It's Christians I Can't Stand' by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz.
As a topic, they really hit the nail on the head about a growing problem in American churches today. Now, a few years later, I have found another book which is stirring my mind and soul further, and speaking out about things which have continued to occupy my thoughts and help me to understand why I find myself on the road I am walking today: "Mere Churchianity" by Michael Spencer.
According to the author "Mere Churchianity" is written for people who have come to the end of the road with church but who can't entirely walk away from Jesus.
He further states, "Are the people who run away, walk away, drift away or lost their way really abandoning Jesus and the Good News? Or are they walking away from a church that has become disconnected from Jesus and all he stands for? Perhaps churchianity has done more to alienate people from Christianity than all the best selling books written by angry atheists?"
The modern culture has given us a church-growth spirituality:
Our church is great, we are growing like crazy. We have six services a week, youth programs, a ladies retreat group, men's group outings, and something going on every night. We are winning! It makes church sound like a Charlie Sheen meltdown.
Let's have Christ's Coffee Stand right outside the sanctuary. Let's have the Bethlehem Books next door. Let's build a basketball gym and a nice huge fellowship hall so we can offer a ballroom dancing group on Friday night and a youth program for basketball on Sunday afternoons.
Of course this will mean we need to start a huge building campaign and fundraiser so we can do it. We'll break ground now and take out a loan to get started. Don't worry, Jesus said debt was just fine as long as it was for a growing and emerging church group.
Churches seem to be in competition with one another to be the ultimate Christian destination. I should point out here, I am not suggesting for a minute, that people who attend these churches are destroying the faith or have bad intentions. It is the leaders of these churches who are turning your local house of worship into the local franchisee from the Jesus Corporation of America. Apparently many of them feel this is how you win souls for Christ, the same way Verizon wins phone customers from AT&T: Marketing. Offer a better, more "hip" place to worship.
I think many of the folks attending these churches are just lost in the torrential onslaught of the modern American consumerist church culture. If you are at the church so many nights a week, it is hard to get an outside perspective on things. They are hanging out with many other fellow souls who are so engrossed in the culture, they lose perspective.
Well, speaking for myself and I would hope many others, this is what pushed us away. We have had to leave the modern American church to go in search of Jesus elsewhere. Plainly put: too little Jesus and too much Christian Country Club.
Spencer goes a bit further in his assessment, "Evangelicalism has become the sworn enemy of biblical Christianity. Instead it has become more like a fraternal lodge with it's own language, rules, requirements, rituals, and secret handshakes."
I know some churches EXACTLY like what he is describing, because I left one for that same reason. The pastor in that church drives a nice shiny Corvette. I wonder if Jesus showed up there on Sunday if he would even recognize the happenings inside that building as resembling anything like his direction for the church? When Jesus returned to Jerusalem did he arrive riding in a tricked-out, draped in silk, adorned with gold, top of the line, horse? Did any of the disciples?
Spencer had a paragraph which really summed it up so very well. "Life as a Jesus-follower grows out of Jesus and the gospel, not out of the church. The church is a resource for spiritual development and can be a sign of what God wants to do on earth. But the church, because it is neither Christ, nor His kingdom, is never the ultimate source of a person's life with God."
Here is the typical modern Christian checklist:
1) Attend the coolest megachurch. They will have a kickin' worship band, the neatest video technology, and maybe even a coffee shop.
2) Listen only to Christian radio in your car.
3) Buy the Bible in your cool, hip edition just for your demographic group.
4) Go to the men's meeting. Go to the small group meeting. Go to the prayer meeting. Go to the fellowship meeting. Go on the ladies retreat.
5) Take a class at the church.
6) Better yet, go to a conference with all your friends from the same church.
For me, I simply didn't fit into the modern church cookie-cutter blueprint for building faith. It left me feeling like nothing more than a pawn in a game of corporate church chess.
So, why I am writing this at all? Simply put, I felt there might be others out there having some of the same thoughts. Maybe not. I certainly don't have all the answers. I know some will object to the fact I even dared to question the modern church. Sorry. I know God has a plan for me, as He does for us all. Mine appears to include asking the kinds of questions some don't want asked, and others are simply afraid to ask. Many find it annoying, but maybe a few will find they are not alone in searching for the same answers.
Mere Churchianity simply struck a chord with me. The book deals with so much more than this simple blog mentions. Spencer truly loved the Lord, and was troubled by what he saw looking around at the modern church landscape.
Rather than turn this into a long essay, or blog series, I will simply close with some of my favorite passages from the book.
"What speaks more loudly about grace: your theological definition of the word grace or the tip you leave at dinner?"
"Churches love to promote Christianity as primarily a group activity. Participate in enough classes, conferences, concerts, projects, and committees, and you can become a follower of Jesus Christ just like everyone else."
"I wonder if it strikes anyone as strange that Christians often adopt a system where we know that Jesus wouldn't do the thing we are considering, but we feel free to do it anyway. ... No one I know believes He would build a $70 million worship center."
"Would Jesus recognize the church of 21st century North America as the movement He began? ... With four gospels to work with, the words and teachings of Jesus are not hard to find. ... Was church growth a major Jesus topic? If not, why not? And where did we come up with all the things we love to devote conferences to?"
"Evangelical Christians have church growth spirituality, where the experience of knowing God is shaped by the activities of making the church bigger and its facilities more impressive. Thousands of pastors are practitioners of the spirituality that is measured by attendance figures, buildings, and budget: all part of a spirituality that Jesus repudiated."
"Jesus was not clearing the road so I could ride victoriously through life. He was becoming the road that would carry me through all the garbage, falls, failures, and disasters that were the inevitable results of my existence."
"I'm looking for a spiritual experience that looks like, feels like, sounds like, lives like, loves like, and acts like Jesus of Nazareth. It's that simple."
"When you view evangelicalism from a distance, it becomes clear that almost all the problems can be traced back to evangelicalism's unquestioned commitment to be successful and relevant. The demise of contemporary evangelical Christianity isn't happening because of liberals in Hollywood or Washington, but because of the misdirected brand of spirituality and community that is being promoted by the most successful evangelicals."
Who was Michael Spencer? Was he just some disgruntled atheist or Catholic? No. He graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan College with a B.A. in Philosophy, Religion and English in 1978. In 1984, he graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master's degree in Theology. He worked for many years in the ministry, in a variety of roles. Sadly, he passed away in 2010 after losing a fight with cancer, and shortly after finishing his manuscript.
I don't agree with everything Spencer laid out in his book. But I really appreciated how it helped me take another look at the modern Christian landscape, how it helped me clarify things I had seen and felt on my own.
Thanks Michael for helping us devoted Christians who have gone looking for Jesus out in the world, where His words are unfiltered through the prism of making all my endeavors successful; where I can talk to people who are as broken and flawed as I am, without someone handing me their particular franchise's rulebook for proper Christian living; and for helping us realize, there are lots of folks out there who's faith in Christ is unwavering, but who's faith in the modern church is sorely lacking.
As a topic, they really hit the nail on the head about a growing problem in American churches today. Now, a few years later, I have found another book which is stirring my mind and soul further, and speaking out about things which have continued to occupy my thoughts and help me to understand why I find myself on the road I am walking today: "Mere Churchianity" by Michael Spencer.
According to the author "Mere Churchianity" is written for people who have come to the end of the road with church but who can't entirely walk away from Jesus.
He further states, "Are the people who run away, walk away, drift away or lost their way really abandoning Jesus and the Good News? Or are they walking away from a church that has become disconnected from Jesus and all he stands for? Perhaps churchianity has done more to alienate people from Christianity than all the best selling books written by angry atheists?"
The modern culture has given us a church-growth spirituality:
Our church is great, we are growing like crazy. We have six services a week, youth programs, a ladies retreat group, men's group outings, and something going on every night. We are winning! It makes church sound like a Charlie Sheen meltdown.
Let's have Christ's Coffee Stand right outside the sanctuary. Let's have the Bethlehem Books next door. Let's build a basketball gym and a nice huge fellowship hall so we can offer a ballroom dancing group on Friday night and a youth program for basketball on Sunday afternoons.
Of course this will mean we need to start a huge building campaign and fundraiser so we can do it. We'll break ground now and take out a loan to get started. Don't worry, Jesus said debt was just fine as long as it was for a growing and emerging church group.
Churches seem to be in competition with one another to be the ultimate Christian destination. I should point out here, I am not suggesting for a minute, that people who attend these churches are destroying the faith or have bad intentions. It is the leaders of these churches who are turning your local house of worship into the local franchisee from the Jesus Corporation of America. Apparently many of them feel this is how you win souls for Christ, the same way Verizon wins phone customers from AT&T: Marketing. Offer a better, more "hip" place to worship.
I think many of the folks attending these churches are just lost in the torrential onslaught of the modern American consumerist church culture. If you are at the church so many nights a week, it is hard to get an outside perspective on things. They are hanging out with many other fellow souls who are so engrossed in the culture, they lose perspective.
Well, speaking for myself and I would hope many others, this is what pushed us away. We have had to leave the modern American church to go in search of Jesus elsewhere. Plainly put: too little Jesus and too much Christian Country Club.
Spencer goes a bit further in his assessment, "Evangelicalism has become the sworn enemy of biblical Christianity. Instead it has become more like a fraternal lodge with it's own language, rules, requirements, rituals, and secret handshakes."
I know some churches EXACTLY like what he is describing, because I left one for that same reason. The pastor in that church drives a nice shiny Corvette. I wonder if Jesus showed up there on Sunday if he would even recognize the happenings inside that building as resembling anything like his direction for the church? When Jesus returned to Jerusalem did he arrive riding in a tricked-out, draped in silk, adorned with gold, top of the line, horse? Did any of the disciples?
Spencer had a paragraph which really summed it up so very well. "Life as a Jesus-follower grows out of Jesus and the gospel, not out of the church. The church is a resource for spiritual development and can be a sign of what God wants to do on earth. But the church, because it is neither Christ, nor His kingdom, is never the ultimate source of a person's life with God."
Here is the typical modern Christian checklist:
1) Attend the coolest megachurch. They will have a kickin' worship band, the neatest video technology, and maybe even a coffee shop.
2) Listen only to Christian radio in your car.
3) Buy the Bible in your cool, hip edition just for your demographic group.
4) Go to the men's meeting. Go to the small group meeting. Go to the prayer meeting. Go to the fellowship meeting. Go on the ladies retreat.
5) Take a class at the church.
6) Better yet, go to a conference with all your friends from the same church.
For me, I simply didn't fit into the modern church cookie-cutter blueprint for building faith. It left me feeling like nothing more than a pawn in a game of corporate church chess.
So, why I am writing this at all? Simply put, I felt there might be others out there having some of the same thoughts. Maybe not. I certainly don't have all the answers. I know some will object to the fact I even dared to question the modern church. Sorry. I know God has a plan for me, as He does for us all. Mine appears to include asking the kinds of questions some don't want asked, and others are simply afraid to ask. Many find it annoying, but maybe a few will find they are not alone in searching for the same answers.
Mere Churchianity simply struck a chord with me. The book deals with so much more than this simple blog mentions. Spencer truly loved the Lord, and was troubled by what he saw looking around at the modern church landscape.
Rather than turn this into a long essay, or blog series, I will simply close with some of my favorite passages from the book.
"What speaks more loudly about grace: your theological definition of the word grace or the tip you leave at dinner?"
"Churches love to promote Christianity as primarily a group activity. Participate in enough classes, conferences, concerts, projects, and committees, and you can become a follower of Jesus Christ just like everyone else."
"I wonder if it strikes anyone as strange that Christians often adopt a system where we know that Jesus wouldn't do the thing we are considering, but we feel free to do it anyway. ... No one I know believes He would build a $70 million worship center."
"Would Jesus recognize the church of 21st century North America as the movement He began? ... With four gospels to work with, the words and teachings of Jesus are not hard to find. ... Was church growth a major Jesus topic? If not, why not? And where did we come up with all the things we love to devote conferences to?"
"Evangelical Christians have church growth spirituality, where the experience of knowing God is shaped by the activities of making the church bigger and its facilities more impressive. Thousands of pastors are practitioners of the spirituality that is measured by attendance figures, buildings, and budget: all part of a spirituality that Jesus repudiated."
"Jesus was not clearing the road so I could ride victoriously through life. He was becoming the road that would carry me through all the garbage, falls, failures, and disasters that were the inevitable results of my existence."
"I'm looking for a spiritual experience that looks like, feels like, sounds like, lives like, loves like, and acts like Jesus of Nazareth. It's that simple."
"When you view evangelicalism from a distance, it becomes clear that almost all the problems can be traced back to evangelicalism's unquestioned commitment to be successful and relevant. The demise of contemporary evangelical Christianity isn't happening because of liberals in Hollywood or Washington, but because of the misdirected brand of spirituality and community that is being promoted by the most successful evangelicals."
Who was Michael Spencer? Was he just some disgruntled atheist or Catholic? No. He graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan College with a B.A. in Philosophy, Religion and English in 1978. In 1984, he graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master's degree in Theology. He worked for many years in the ministry, in a variety of roles. Sadly, he passed away in 2010 after losing a fight with cancer, and shortly after finishing his manuscript.
I don't agree with everything Spencer laid out in his book. But I really appreciated how it helped me take another look at the modern Christian landscape, how it helped me clarify things I had seen and felt on my own.
Thanks Michael for helping us devoted Christians who have gone looking for Jesus out in the world, where His words are unfiltered through the prism of making all my endeavors successful; where I can talk to people who are as broken and flawed as I am, without someone handing me their particular franchise's rulebook for proper Christian living; and for helping us realize, there are lots of folks out there who's faith in Christ is unwavering, but who's faith in the modern church is sorely lacking.
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