Book Review: Mere Churchianity

Mere Churchianity is a book for those who have left the church “to find Jesus.”

Now, Michael Spencer does have a lot of good points. But sadly, for every “YES” that I wrote in the margin, there was a equal, if not greater number of “I think he has this wrong here.”

Growing up in somewhat of a “church culture,” I did relate to many of his examples: the youth group massacring Dairy Queen, studying the bible with little interest in seeing how it pointed to the gospel, the dangers of being culture shaped more than Christ shaped. Those are all very true things that go on in many churches.

“Behind the Jesus Is Here sign there are too many narcissistic competitors in what has rightly been called the “worship wars,” a consumerist competition to draw a bigger audience into a fog of Jesus-lite entertainment.” Sad, but horribly true in some instances.

“Many Christians like to spend time with those who mirror themselves.” True, and not an example of the Gospel.

But Spencer makes a mistake. He chooses to look to disgruntled people to set the agenda, instead of the Scriptures. More than once he talks about the people who are not Christians, but surely know a thing or two about Jesus- we should listen to them. Should we? Should we listen to the people who have no idea about Christ as they tell us that our church services are too long, the music is too old fashioned, the prayers are too intense, yadda yadda yadda. It is with this ideology that many churches has taken a seeker sensitive approach- letting the nonbelievers set the agenda in regards to ecclesiology, polity, and church community and theology. Hardly a biblical concept.

Spencer is right about the spiritual bankruptcy of some churches. But again, he fails to give the correct answer. It is not because of the misdirected brand that is being promoted- though that does play a part- it is because of sin. People are unsatisfied with what the Bible says about how we are to live as Christians in church because of sin issues.

I fear he throws the baby out with the bathwater by the end of the book. Through the whole book, I just wanted to grab Spencer and say “but it doesn’t have to be this way!” There are biblical churches that love Christ, love each other, and love the gospel. There are churches that read the scriptures and teach rightly, and carefully examine their theology. While it might be a wise decision to leave A church because it fails to pursue Christ, it is a lazy self seeking mistake to leave “the church” altogether because of some disgruntled ideas. 

You would be ten times better off reading “Why We Love The Church” by DeYoung and Kluck for some solid ecclesiology.

“I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review”.