6 of 6

As a liberal Episcopalian, Miller is clearly an outsider to these groups, yet he presents a sympathetic portrait of enthusiastic worship, organizational flexibility, intense discipleship in small cell groups, and the ability to attract and nurture those whose history and lifestyle have disenfranchised them from more established churches. On all these counts, Miller's concluding call for mainstream Protestantism to learn from NPCS is welcome.

But Mark Noll's warning in Scandal of the Evangelical Mind about antitraditional forms of Christian piety deserves heed here as well. The biblicistic, authoritarian style of these pastors, "unfettered" by knowledge of the larger Christian tradition, hamstrings careful theological reflection. Routinization of these churches is inevitable. And when it comes, the confluence of this style of pastoral leadership with a hierarchical bureaucracy may be the worst of both worlds.

Copyright © 1998 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

first page |  6 of 6

share this page

April 27 1998, Vol. 42, No. 5