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If you've talked to 20-somethings lately, you've probably noticed we're disillusioned about almost everything—government, war, the economy, and most things having to do with The Man. We're especially disillusioned with church. Somewhere between the Crusades, the Inquisition, and fundamentalists bombing abortion clinics, we lost our appetite for institutionalized Christianity. A slew of recent books addresses this growing disenchantment.

An oft-disillusioned (and hopelessly idealistic) 20-something myself, I picked up Life After Church: God's Call to Disillusioned Christians (InterVarsity), and Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation (Zondervan). I figured that I'd find writers who share my frustrations. But I was also hoping they would push me toward a deeper and richer relationship with the church—and in this, I was left unsatisfied.

In Life After Church, Brian Sanders writes specifically for "leavers"—people who are committed to Jesus Christ but often view church as a "failed experiment." They feel that following Jesus and staying in a local congregation have become mutually exclusive. Likewise, Sarah Cunningham in Dear Church writes for those who "question whether attending a local church has anything to do with a person's faith."

Both authors focus on local congregations as the primary source of disappointment. Sanders says leavers find Sunday morning services irrelevant—they're repetitive, they don't address issues that really matter to them, and they fail to provide meaningful outlets for service. Leavers often feel that they've outgrown what they perceive as simplistic, seeker-oriented messages; nor do they find churches conducive to deep community. Cunningham says 20-somethings are uncomfortable with overly cool, overly polished churches "whose onstage dress code seems to keep designer clothing stores in business." She also wrestles with the socioeconomic and racial homogeneity of local congregations.

Both authors identify a variety of complaints with the church. But naming a problem isn't the same thing as addressing it.

Sanders and Cunningham suggest drawing on a "clean canvas" what it means to do church. Sanders looks to Acts 9, which describes the apostle Paul's calling following his conversion, in order to propose an "ecclesial minimum" of worship, community, and mission. He writes, "As easily as we have formed churches around cathedrals and buildings with steeples and stained glass, we can form churches around pubs and laundromats, parks and coffee shops. … Simply inviting believers and nonbelievers into our homes for the purpose of worshiping and sharing Jesus transforms our homes into churches."

Obviously it is essential that we as Christians intentionally build relationships with nonbelievers in pubs and laundromats, because that is where they are. But that isn't church. Church is much more complex than "worshiping and sharing Jesus."

Cunningham cites various New Testament passages that deal with early Christian communities. She mentions Matthew 16 a few times—where Jesus appoints Peter to be the rock on which the church will be built—as the biblical grounds for her understanding of church. Ultimately, though, she shies away from any notion of the church as an institution (the closest she comes is saying that the church should be "a permanent fixture in society"). Jesus, she says, "did away with institutionalized religion and instead championed a real-life faith where he hung out with his followers in a way that was perhaps reminiscent of Eden."

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April 2008, Vol. 52, No. 4