Before I dig into the review can I just say that I love all of these book programs? I'm an avid reader and I have as many books as I can handle just from these. They're the main reason that this blog has mostly turned into a place to house book reviews.
Anyways, Mere Churchianity. The Publisher's Weekly review says, "Spencer, who blogged as the Internet Monk until his untimely death earlier this year, offers a harsh assessment of institutional Christianity-"churchianity." He speaks to the millions who, according to surveys, have changed religions or left them altogether. He takes special aim at evangelical megachurches and prosperity gospel preachers, though he also doesn't spare those who link Jesus to the flag or sociopolitical causes. None of this, he insists, has anything to do with Jesus, who was Jewish (not American), hung out with people others rejected, and made disciples instead of buildings. He advocates "Jesus-shaped spirituality," which can be found in service and scripture and, most important, won't necessarily make you smile, because it can be hard to practice. Like so many critics of the current state of institutional Christianity, Spencer is a lot better at describing the problem than solving it; his indictment gets a little repetitious at times. But his tone is folksy and passionate without ranting. The book is his last word, and stands as the sincere testament of a Christian humble enough to admit and even embrace his flaws"
Given where Chris and I are (or aren't) with church right now, this one couldn’t have been more timely. Michael Spencer was the blogger behind internetmonk.com and he wrote to those who were leaving or had left (mostly) evangelical churches. He doesn't mince words in this book and he doesn't hold back about what he sees as the problems with evangelical churches. His contention is that yes, many of these churches have gone badly awry, yes, you can be a Christian without going to church, and yes there is another way. As someone who has been to those churches, including some of the "biggies" (Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley, etc) it was good to hear someone point out what non-Christians know and some Christians suspect but are afraid to face. For those of us who have defined our Christianity by our church, his premise of Jesus-shaped spirituality is, at least for me, liberating. The question, “how would I feel about ___ if I had spent 3 years with Jesus?” is dangerous, counter church-cultural (even though it shouldn't be), and powerful. The fact that so many churches have gotten so far away from Jesus that they don’t even think this question is worth considering is frightening, and yet I’ve seen it. I was afraid that this book was going to be all down on the church and nothing about what to do next, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. Spencer advocates reading the Bible to find out who Jesus is and what it looked like to be his disciple, spending time with Christians willing to be honest about themselves, and serving people.
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