I never met Michael Spencer, but I had the privilege of having him comment on one of my blog entries, so it is an honor now to review his book, Mere Churchianity.
Spencer opens his book by stating that he is writing to those who have left or are leaving the church because, rather than finding Jesus, what they found in the church was “Churchianity.” For Spencer, “Churchianity” is very much like the religion of the Pharisees – it has all the trappings of being about God and His Son, Jesus, the Savior, but, in fact, it is a collection of rules, practices, and promises which are nowhere to be found in the Scripture.
Spencer begins by arguing that the health and wealth gospel is no gospel at all, and that is what many people find in the church, in myriad forms. It’s like a pecan pie without the pecans (26). Church has become a place of motivation speakers and commodities, not the House of the Lord.
“Jesus is God,” Spencer repeated – and biblically – asserts. And he calls his readers to look at Jesus and see how He purposefully broke the traditions and man-made rules to move people beyond the binding and vacuous teaching to the real Jesus (35).
“Jesus-Shaped Spirituality,” which is what Spencer argues is real Christianity, involves, “Jesus, having a genuine experience of God, and figuring out how life gets transformed” (48). Anything less than this is worthless – and it is why many people are leaving the Church.
Spencer goes on to explain the Jesus is being touted and claimed to teach and call people to things He never said. Instead, one ought to look to the Scripture, and he goes on to state key points about Jesus as taught in the Scripture.
Following the “Jesus-Shaped Life,” Spencer argues, doers have much to do with how one lives, but in things like the presence and power of the kingdom, including the excluded, producing disciples, proclaiming the Gospel, encouraging the disciples, and witnessing to the presence of the Kingdom (94-104).
He goes on to say that the Bible. Not the institution must have control/priority. After this he discus another trend of “Churchianity,” that being the so-called “victorious life,” in which he argues, persuasively, that this is not taught in the Scripture. Jesus does not instantly solve everyone’s problems and make them sinless at the moment of conversion.
The truth of the matter is that we are born “screwed up” and after conversion, we are still screwed up, though we ought to be progressing towards the holiness we are saved to and will be in the Kingdom. The Christian life, he states, is a war; not a victorious life club. To confuse the two destroys the soul, because no one lives up to the claims of “Churchianity.”
Real Christian Church life involves making disciples through relationship, constant exposure to Jesus’ teachings, going beyond one’s comfort zones, experience the Power of the Holy Spirit, Who illumines them, being center on the Gospel message in this time (155-157).
Spencer suggests that we find heros – humans that truly walk the Christian life, who one can be discipled by – and that includes the living and the dead, people one knows and people one will never meet.
He concludes by looking at Jesus and showing that there are times to be alone and times where community is the beneficial. There is a difference between be a fan of Jesus and believing Him. True followers of Christ are in mentorship/discipleship and live lives of service, especially to the poor. Finally, he concludes, in the Q & A section, with an orthodox confession of belief – for all those who might wonder.
Spencer’s book is excellent; I would encourage anyone who has left a church or who is considering doing so to read his book – with someone that is a believer and has read it. There might be a temptation to jump to the conclusion that Spencer is recommending that Christians leave the Church, which he is not.
Three areas I did have some difficulty with him were as follows:
He talks about how he likes the WWJD? bracelets. I have to take issue with him, because we are not Jesus, we are not sinless, and we have not been called to do all that Jesus did. We have been called to live as Jesus calls us to live in the Scripture, which is not that same thing.
Although Spencer talks about discipleship, I wish he had talked more about discipline, and how the Church has been given the authority to require conformity to the Scripture – not “Churchianity.”
Thirdly, Spencer talks about his love for the Roman Catholic/Lutheran/Anglican tradition, even as a Baptist, and I would wonder how his understanding of right doctrine would influence the denomination one aligns with. Certainly, he is right that just being right is not Christianity. Yet, I wonder if he might consider one or more denominations – as a whole – as more faithful to Jesus’ teachings than others.
That being said, I do highly recommend the book for discussion and persuasion that the Church is not “Churchianity, and Jesus is not “Churchianity.” May God use this book to make us all more faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
[This review appears on Amazon.com and my blog. I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.]
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