{"id":6557,"date":"2010-07-17T13:46:14","date_gmt":"2010-07-17T13:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-24.html"},"modified":"2010-07-17T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2010-07-17T13:46:14","slug":"saturday-afternoon-book-review-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-24.html","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Afternoon Book Review: Matt Edwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Library.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>by Michael Spencer<\/span><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Matt Edwards<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Mere Churchianity<\/i>, Michael Spencer (aka The Internet Monk) urges those wounded by the church to return to a Jesus-shaped spirituality. Writing primarily to those who have left or are leaving the church, Spencer urges his readers to forget the idols of megachurches, superpastors, prosperity preaching, culture wars, patriotism, moralism, and conformity, and look for the God who is Jesus. For those familiar with Spencer’s writing, the book is classic iMonk.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands read Spencer’s blog, www.internetmonk.com<\/a>. In 2009, his Christian Science Monitor<\/i> article, “The Coming Evangelical Collapse,” became an internet sensation and catapulted him to the national spotlight, landing him television and radio attention and a book deal. Mere Churchianity<\/i> would have been the first of many books written by the prophet from Appalachia, were it not for his tragic death in April 2010 of a brain tumor. We lost a great man.<\/p>\n

I am hesitant to review Mere Churchianity<\/i> because of the timing of its release and of Spencer’s death. I don’t want people to misunderstand me. Before “The Coming Evangelical Collapse,” Spencer’s next project was to be the search for Jesus-shaped spirituality. It seemed that Spencer’s deconstructive journey through the post-evangelical wilderness drove him to a Jesus-shaped reconstruction. Given the theme and subtitle of the book, it feels like the consummation of his ministry as Internet Monk. Undoubtedly this would<\/i> not<\/i> have been the case, but given the timing of its release with his death, it feels like it is.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n


<\/i><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

All of this is to say that this
\nis a review of Mere Churchianty<\/i>, not of Spencer’s life or ministry. That
\nreview is someone else’s to write. I was (and continue to be) a faithful reader
\nof his blogs. I would even call them “life-changing” for me. I emailed him a
\ncouple of times, listened to his podcast, 
\n<\/span>and even contributed some articles for a series he called “The
\nEvangelical Untouchables” (think Eliot Ness), but I never talked to him. I am
\nnot qualified to write about the legacy of the Internet Monk, so please, read
\nthis as a review of the book, not the man.<\/p>\n

Mere Churchianity<\/i> is
\nwritten to people who have either left the church or who are leaving the
\nchurch. He opens with a story from his early days as a youth pastor, taking his
\ngroup to a Dairy Queen after a long Sunday of church activities. The students
\nwere loud, obnoxious, and destructive, and he later received a letter from one
\nof the Dairy Queen employees. She lambasted Spencer for allowing his group to
\nbehave so selfishly, uncaring about how their behavior affected others or about
\nwho had to clean up after them. She also let him know that she was a member of
\nhis church and had recently become an atheist. She wrote, “Christians like you
\nhave convinced me that God is a myth, an excuse used by religious people to
\nmistreat others. As long as there are people like you and your youth group,
\nI’ll never come to church or believe in God again.” (2)<\/p>\n

In his youth, Spencer wrote the
\ngirl off as a disgruntled atheist looking for someone to blame for her
\nproblems. In his older age, he realized that there was more to the story than
\nthe girl let on. He recognized an unwritten subtext to her letter, “You see,
\nMr. Spencer, even though I’ve left the church and the faith you are pushing, I
\nstill know a bit about Jesus. Christianity ought to be about Jesus, and with
\nyou, it’s not. . . . If Christians were at all about Jesus . . . then I might
\nhave some hope again that the church isn’t full of liars.” (6)<\/p>\n

Spencer came to realize the
\ntruth in the girl’s words. Christians should be about Jesus. At Dairy Queen,
\nSpencer and his youth group weren’t about Jesus; they were arrogant,
\nungracious, unloving, and confident that God was on their side. He writes, “The
\ngirl working behind the counter pointed all this out to me more than three
\ndecades ago, but I wasn’t listening. Today I am paying attention, and this book
\nis my repentance.” (7) <\/span><\/p>\n

The theme of Mere Churchianity<\/i>
\nis that, because most American evangelical churches have abandoned Christianity
\nfor churchianity, post-evangelicals need not leave Jesus, even if they have
\nleft the church. Churchianity is Christianity without Jesus. Like a pecan pie
\nwithout pecans, most churches have little to nothing to do with Jesus, even if
\nthey have a big sign out front proclaiming “Jesus is here.”<\/p>\n

The problem, according to
\nSpencer, is that most evangelical churches care more about numbers, budgets,
\ncelebrity, influence, culture wars, or patriotism than they do about Jesus. The
\nsolution, according to Spencer, is return to a Jesus-shaped spirituality. How
\ndo we distinguish the real Jesus from false Jesuses? The Scriptures (83, 118).
\nWhat can we know about Jesus? Jesus really existed (85), Jesus was Jewish (85),
\nJesus was a part of an oppressed people (86), Jesus accepted the Old Testament,
\nbut reinterpreted it as about him (88), and Jesus is God incarnate (89). What
\ndoes it look like to follow Jesus? Following Jesus means proclaiming the gospel
\nof the kingdom of God, encouraging discipleship, and witnessing to the presence
\nof the kingdom (102). Discipleship includes knowing God as Father, experiencing
\nforgiveness, following Jesus in community, and participating in the mission of
\nthe church (100).<\/p>\n

One of the more provocative
\nideas in Mere Churchianity<\/i> is the role that Spencer gives “the church”
\nin Jesus-shaped spirituality. On the one hand, Spencer agrees with Luther that
\n“the church” is where the Word of God is preached and the sacraments are
\nadministered (212). So, two Jesus-followers meeting over coffee does not
\nqualify as a “church.” On the other hand, he questions whether “only the most
\nself-defined, formally recognized institutions get to make the call on what
\nqualifies as Jesus’ movement.” (212)<\/p>\n

Spencer compares following Jesus
\nto playing baseball. Baseball was always a big part of his life and his
\nchildhood summers were filled with sandlot ball. Now, in the same town, there
\nwas also little league. In little league, there were uniforms. There were
\nscoreboards, and umpires, and bleachers. Sandlot ball had none of that. A tree
\nserved as second base. There wasn’t always enough players to field every
\nposition. But did that make sandlot ball less “real” baseball than little league?
\nIn the same way, a coffee-shop gathering of Jesus followers may not be a
\n“church,” but it isn’t any less of a Jesus movement. The problem with the
\nchurch, according to Spencer, is that it is full of people who know all of the
\nrules, own all of the equipment, know all of the stats, and blog about player
\nperformance, but who have never played the game. Spencer wanted to see people
\nplay the game, however informally.<\/p>\n

The best thing about Mere
\nChurchianity<\/i> is hearing Spencer’s voice again. In several places I found
\nmyself tearing up as I remembered what an important voice we lost in Michael
\nSpencer. I miss his wit. He writes about the pressure to conform, “There are
\nmany who leave the church because they find they are confronted by an
\ninexplicable hostility toward solitude and individuality. In the community that
\nsays ‘God loves you,’ many feel that the next line is ‘and he dislikes
\neverything about you.'” (182)<\/p>\n

I miss his compassion. He writes
\nto those who have failed to live up to the lie of “victorious” Christian
\nliving, “If you have left the church or are headed for the door, there is a
\nstrong possibility that you have to leave in order to hold on to your
\nintegrity. You realized you can no longer play the religion game. You may be
\nplaying other games–I’m not letting any of us off the hook. But you found you
\ncould no longer be party to the endless act that you are living the victorious
\nChristian life.” (136)<\/p>\n

I miss his honesty. He writes
\nabout his wife’s conversion to Roman Catholicism, “I’ve never seen my wife
\nhappier in her relationship with the God she knows through Jesus. We love each
\nother and rejoice that we belong to Jesus and share communion in him, if not at
\nthe same table.” (179)<\/p>\n

I even miss his snark. He writes
\nabout the coming evangelical collapse, “If you’re ever around evangelical
\nChristians, though, you realize they have the opposite problem. They believe
\ntheir ship is listing to one side because it gives them a more interesting look
\nat the iceberg. Evangelicals believe that people who distance themselves from
\nthe church are not disenchanted but are ‘under conviction of the Holy Spirit.’
\nChristians are convinced that the generally low opinion people have of
\nthem–such as not wanting Christians as neighbors and trying to avoid having a
\nconversation with Christians–is because people can’t deal with the
\nuncomfortable truth about Jesus. Evangelicals believe the growing numbers of
\nyoung adults who grew up in church-attending families and then abandoned the
\nship of faith is the fault of Hollywood, liberals, rock music, and sex.<\/p>\n

Riiight<\/i>.” (23)<\/p>\n

The book is a must-read for
\niMonk followers.<\/p>\n

People have written much about
\nSpencer’s unique voice. They appreciate his honesty, his passion, and his grace
\n(even when refusing to back down from an argument). I always appreciated his
\nlove for the church. In an age when it is popular (and easy) to bash the
\nchurch, Spencer loved her. But, he loved her as one whose heart had been broken
\nby his beloved’s abusive and self-destructive behavior. He loved her as one who
\nhad to put his foot down and say, “enough.” Internetmonk.com was an
\nintervention. But, despite his frankness about the house of cards we
\nevangelicals have constructed, he never left. “Enough” never really meant
\n“enough.” In the spirit of Martin Luther, Spencer’s true desire was to reform
\nfrom within. This desire bleeds through the pages of Mere Churchianity<\/i>.<\/p>\n

After quoting Jesus’ message to
\nthe wayward churches in the first few chapters of Revelation, Spencer writes,
\n“It’s astonishing to hear Jesus speak to first-century Christians this way, and
\neven more astonishing to read his invitations to these churches; to return to
\nJesus himself. Over and over, the same invitation: return to me.” (210)<\/p>\n

My one concern when reading Mere
\nChurchianity<\/i> is what people would do with it. Would they take Spencer’s
\nadvice about reforming from within (perhaps redefining what “within” looks like),
\nor would they latch on to Spencer’s critiques and ignore his exhortations? The
\nlast thing Spencer would have wanted was for his book to start a movement of
\n“Jesus-shaped” Christians who represented “the biblical Jesus” and who wagged
\ntheir fingers at all the godless phonies, cowards, and sell-outs who refused to
\nsee evangelicalism for what it was. Sadly, people being what they are, many
\nwill do just that.<\/p>\n

So, my question for the Jesus Creed
\ncommunity is, “How do ‘Jesus-shaped’ Christians (or Third Way Christians or
\nwhatever you want to label yourself) treat those who refuse to join us?” Let’s
\ngrant that Spencer is right–evangelicalism has sold out and is going the way of
\nthe dinosaur. Let’s grant that a new breed of evangelicals is emerging from the
\nsmoldering ashes of what went before. Given that this transition will take
\ndecades to realize, how do we move forward without sitting in judgment over
\nthose who have gone before? Can we follow Spencer’s example and “share
\ncommunion with them, if not at the same table”?<\/p>\n

If you are a member of a church
\ncommitted to “churchianity,” what thing(s) can you do to encourage your church
\nto return to Jesus? If you have left “churchianity” in favor of something new,
\nwhat things can you do to guard yourself from a new self-righteousness?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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