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Postmodern. Postliberal. Post-Christendom. Postchristian. Although we debate the aptness of these terms and their illuminating power, they reveal something significant about our culture—the times, they are a-changin'. Add to this cultural flux the difficulty of developing an ecclesiology for evangelicals—Presbyterians, Baptists, Pentecostals, Anglicans, Independents, parachurch organizations.

Addressing the current cultural situation and applying it to evangelicals is what David Fitch takes on in The Great Giveaway. It is a daunting task: to make the case for a particular interpretation of our culture and at the same time develop an evangelical ecclesiology. Fitch is well-prepared for this dual task by his Ph.D. (Northwestern) and his years in pastoral ministry in the greater Chicago area. His aim is appropriate and admirable. It provides many moments of illumination and passages of sustained analysis and direction for "reclaiming the mission of the church" (as the subtitle promises). Overall, the book is a mixture of strengths and weaknesses that reflects the complexity of our times, the topic of the book, and the task of faithfully fulfilling the church's mission.

For Fitch, we live in postmodern times. Fitch makes the case for this interpretation of our culture not by arguing it but by presuming the postmodern condition and by using it as a hermeneutical key and guide for the church's mission. Thus, as he addresses various aspects of the church's life, he demonstrates how, under the influence of modernity, the church has "given away" its mission. Modernity has infected our definition of success, and our practices of evangelism, worship, preaching, moral education, and more, so that we are no longer faithful to our mission. Postmodernity illuminates this giveaway and guides us back to faithfulness.

In his exposition, Fitch regards postmodernity as more than a cultural shift that illuminates our cultural captivity. It is also more than the cultural milieu in which the church pursues its mission. Postmodernity for Fitch is the cultural wave that we should ride for the foreseeable future as it illuminates the past, the present, and the future.

This is not to say that Fitch gets everything or even a majority of things wrong. His cultural analysis is usually quite insightful. He understands the nuances of complex social analyses and moves deftly from those analyses to church life.

For example, Fitch's fundamental and pervasive critique of the "great giveaway" to modernity is the church's adoption of a modernist and unbiblical understanding of success. From this general critique he moves to instances of this captivity in several areas of church life. If we had a more biblical understanding of success, wouldn't we "count" baptisms more significant than membership. And wouldn't we regard baptism as an act integral to a life of discipleship?

Fitch has many insights into the church's complicity with modernity. What concerns me is that he does not match this critique with any significant recognition that postmodernity might pose the same kind of threat. He wants us to recognize how the church gave away its mission under the spell of modernity. But then he seems to fall under the spell of postmodernity. If this is a bit too harsh, it is at least a threat against which Fitch does not sufficiently warn.

And yet, his ecclesiology—that is, his constructive account of the life of the church in fulfilling its mission—hits most of the right notes. He retrieves, reclaims, reconstructs, redefines, and returns the church to its mission. To do this he draws on the same teachers from whom I have learned so much: Hans Frei, George Lindbeck, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, John Milbank, William Cavanaugh, and Stephen Fowl, among others.

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March (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50