I would like you all to think that I am really smart and thought of all that stuff about the church on my own. But alas, there is this annoying command in the Bible not to lie, so I guess I have to tell you about some books that I read this summer that helped challenge my thoughts on the church. I would highly recommend that you check these out if you haven’t already, and most are available on the Kindle as well, if you want to save trees and a few bucks.
The first was Why We Love the Church by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. I was excited to see these authors teaming up again as I thoroughly enjoyed their last book called Why We Aren’t Emergent. Clearly, you can see where these guys are going just from the title of the book, and they don’t disappoint to address what they see as alarming trends in the bashing of the church. It is not that they are simply defending the traditional church, although they are from a Reformed background. Without trashing all the authors they disagree with, they engage in a discussion on the trend of people exiting the church and creating “new paradigms” for engaging God. Kevin, a pastor, tackles the Biblical foundations as well as the apologetic defense of their stance. Ted, a sports writer, provides interviews, real life stories, and humorous analysis to complement the academic chapters of Kevin. After reading this book, you will see the view of people who know that the church isn’t perfect, are actively involved in reform, yet still love the church and many of it’s current components.
The second book will take you in a completely different direction. Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna makes the claim that much of what the traditional church does today was taken from “pagan” (non Christian) sources and has nothing to do with Biblical Christianity, especially that of the early church. I appreciated their research and scholarship on showing the parallels and links from changes to the church with pagan culture. The question you need to be asking yourself as you read this book is, “Does God use “pagan” means to accomplish His will? does God redeem these cultural expressions for His glory?” If you read any of Frank Viola’s other works, some also with input from Barna, you will see their belief is that we should all return to the house church model, and dump much of what we see as “church” today in favor of organic, simple church. If you read this book together with Viola’s Reimagining Church, you would get a perspective of people who love the church, but see the need for massive reform.
The third book I would recommend is Deep Church by Jim Belcher. This book could have easily been called a Third Way, as Jim plots a course for what he sees as an alternative to traditional church or emerging church. First, he presents what the emerging church movement is, and outlines his involvement in both the traditional and emerging church. Then, Jim takes seven major critiques that the emerging church has of the traditional church and analyzes the validity of the criticism. Often, instead of picking either side as what he sees as correct, he describes a “third way” that he calls the “deep church”. I find it pretty interesting that this deep church ends up being a Redeemer Presbyterian Church (yes, same as Tim Keller) which is a Reformed church. Who knew liturgy would be “in” again? Deep Church will mainly be helpful to you to be able to see the two sides of traditional and emerging, and even if you don’t agree with Jim’s solutions, you will be challenged to come up with your own.
Finally, the best book on church out there is still the Bible (no Amazon link here, if you can’t find a Bible on your own, you have bigger problems than figuring out your beliefs on church). I know, shocker. Seriously though, I was often disappointed in the lack of Scriptural evidence and discussion in many of the books I read about the church. At times, there was Scripture quoted without serious analysis, background, or context given at all. Sure, it is more work to study through the whole New Testament, book by book, putting together what you learn about the church. However, until you do that, you will be at the mercy of book after book, conference after conference, telling you what is the more “Biblical” way to do church or be church. This year you will start your house church, next year you will be opening up a new cafe at a seeker mega congregation, followed by selling flowers at the airport. Don’t forget your name tag.
The Bible Nerd 