I’m not very good at reviewing non-fiction, so I’m not sure why I keep requesting them for review. But I really couldn’t resist this one because my favorite radio preacher, Steve Brown, loved Michael Spencer and happily pushed his book even before it was published. I believe Rev. Brown even offered 3 free sins to those who bought it (I got it free for review- does that count? BTW- you can give away 3 free sins, too.).

Anyway. This book is called Mere Churchianity- Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality by Michael Spencer, aka The Internet Monk (internetmonk.com). Michael Spencer was a pastor who blogged his views on Christianity and church life and, based on a blog post that he wrote, was solicited to write this book. He died shortly before it was released.

While most books on the church (written by Christians) seek to defend the church and most, if not all, of its ways, Mere Churchianity is the opposite. Despite being a pastor himself, Michael Spencer considered the modern church to be more or less the antithesis of a Christ centered life. According to Spencer, at least, in this book, the majority of churches today are too busy either chasing after modern culture (to bring in the sheep- of course) or replacing the Christ-centered life with a bunch of moral rules of its own making.

For the most part, he’s right. It happened in Jesus’ day too- why do you think He was always ragging on the Jewish priesthood?

Rather than try to convince church leavers to give church another try, Spencer seems to be encouraging anyone who’s even contemplating leaving the church to do just that. Go ahead- leave! It might be the best decision you’ve ever made for your spiritual life!

I’m not entirely certain how I feel about his points. On the one hand, I agree. For one thing, the early church certainly didn’t take place in a big building with a band leading you in songs that you may or may not know and taking communion by eating a tiny piece of bread or wafer and a thimble sized shot of grape juice. From what I can gather from reading the New Testament, it was believers gathering together in each others homes, sharing a meal, companionship, and sometimes worshiping God the same way that they did when they were simply Jews (singing, instruments, praying), and meeting in the temple courts (that would be the Jewish temple, by the way, not a church dedicated to Christianity) to pray.

So, yes, I do agree that the modern church doesn’t model how the disciples and the apostles did it. However, our lives don’t mirror that of the Jews during that time either! For many of us, the only way to “not cease gathering together” is in church. If you don’t have a circle of fellow believers to gather with and fellowship with, well, what other way are you going to find fellowship? And if all of your Christian acquaintances believe as you do, how are your beliefs ever going to be challenged? How will you grow? I’m not saying that it’s not possible, I’m just saying that at no point in this book did I feel that Spencer took any look at the good points of having a church.

Part of that single mindedness is simply because the whole point of the book is more or less “If you want to leave church because you don’t want to just be a churchie, then go ahead, it’s probably the right thing to do.”, but the lack of any other point of view made parts of the book actually come across as somewhat bitter.

Honestly though, I think this book is best suited to those who struggle with the idea of others leaving church. The people who immediately condemn “leavers” won’t be able to hear the message, and “leavers” don’t care. But those who hurt to see someone leave the church, but don’t respond in an Holier Than Thou manner, may find Mere Churchianity to be useful in understanding why someone who professes to believe in God and/or Jesus would leave church.

It has some good points, it has some bad points, and overall, I found it to be the least painful non-fiction Christian book to finish. That said, had it not been endorsed by Steve Brown, I probably would not have requested it, and might have not finished it if I had still requested it (which I might have done as I love the title). Better than most, interesting, but not particularly useful unless you’re confused already.

Note- I received this book free of charge from Waterbrook Multnomah in exchange for reviewing it.