Books

The Church’S Mias

Exit Interviews: Revealing Stories of Why People Are Leaving the Church,by William D. Hendricks (Moody, 305 pp.; $17.99, hardcover). Reviewed by Gordon MacDonald, pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts.

If Stephen was the church’s first martyr of biblical record, then Demas was its first dropout. What drove this would-be disciple to abandon his post and head for Thessalonica? We have always assumed a negative reason, given Paul’s blunt explanation (“Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me,” 2 Tim. 4:10). But whatever the reason for his exit, Demas is never heard from again. His disappearance arouses curiosity, as should the disappearance of enormous numbers of people in today’s church world who have headed for their own “Thessalonicas.”

William Hendricks’s Exit Interviews takes a candid look at contemporary church dropouts and gives more than a dozen of them a chance to explain why they made their choices. While much attention has been given to the people coming in the front door of the church, Hendricks notes, little attention has been given to those leaving by the back door. Who are they? And why did they head in other directions?

Hendricks points to the work of David Barrett, who discloses that today’s impressive figures for church growth are matched by equally impressive numbers of people who are choosing to abandon organized Christianity.

Although a bit unsettling, Exit Interviews is helpful for a number of reasons. First, the book faces a blunt fact that some bury in denial: there can be substantial reasons why people leave the institutional church—reasons worth listening to and treating with dignity. Hendricks certainly caught my attention with a reference to church consultant John Savage, whose 1973 research on dropouts of four congregations showed that in not a single case had anyone come to visit or, apparently, to inquire as to their personal situation.

“It’s their problem,” say some inside the church. “They didn’t have what it takes to follow Christ.” Or, “only those who are really committed stick it out.” Sometimes the defensive rationale is reminiscent of the Detroit automakers in the seventies who refused to listen to the customer and insisted on making gas-guzzlers when consumers were ready to downsize.

The book is important, secondly, because it turns an eye toward what I have occasionally noted as the underside of the church: those not-insignificant numbers of people in the congregation who may sit quietly in their seats but who are writhing in their souls because they perceive they are hearing nothing that makes a difference in the affairs of their weekday lives.

“Most Christians live in two worlds,” the author observes, “the privatized world of their religious convictions, and the rough and tumble ‘real world’ of the workplace. Few make any connection between the two.” Such people feel hammered by strange words and ideas, guilt, and unhealthy peer persuasion, and for an indeterminate amount of time, they hang on. They grow weary of the business of religion, choke on the bewildering number of programs. They conclude that the claims made in the pulpit do not fit their version of reality. Ultimately, they simply stop taking it seriously and disappear, never to be heard from again.

Finally, Hendricks’s attempt to provide a forum for church dropouts is valuable because it highlights the real struggles common people live with, and which, in their view, they believe neither the pastor nor the leadership wants to face.

Promises not kept

Who are these people who feel they have found better things to do with their Sundays? The group Hendricks profiles is diverse in geographical location, background, experience, and church life. Fortunately, for some of us who might otherwise be embarrassed, Hendricks has maintained the anonymity of his subjects and that of the churches and organizations with which they were once affiliated. Nonetheless, with virtually every profile one feels the temptation to fill in the blanks with names of personalities, places, and institutions. And, particularly if one is a pastor as I am, one feels pained by almost every chapter.

For the most part, Hendricks’s “guests” are not rebels, most of them are not bitter or vindictive, and they do not look upon others as foolish for not having followed them out. They are simply saying that what the church promised was not there for them.

The reasons? Disillusionment with claims made and not kept in personal relationships, stipulations about the Christian gospel that could not be substantiated, suffocating boredom in programs that demanded much but delivered little, and feelings of being marginalized when there were struggles with doubt or with life patterns and bondages from the past. And that’s just the beginning.

Readers who feel defensive may find Hendricks’s guests a bit too brazen. But this is not a book that simply badmouths the church. Nor are the subjects chronic complainers.

I have a hunch that Exit Interviews will be quoted in many councils of church and by organizational leaders in the coming months. And well it should be. Hendricks has offered a wake-up call that one hopes has not come too late.

America’S “Other” Religions

The Religious Fringe: A History of Alternative Religions in America, by Richard Kyle (InterVarsity, 468 pp.; $17.99, paper). Reviewed by James A. Beverley, who teaches theology and ethics at Ontario Theological Seminary in Toronto, Canada.

In spite of the popularity of the “cults,” there are few books offering “a history of alternative religions in America.” Richard Kyle, professor of history and religion at Tabor College of Hillsboro, Kansas, provides a restrained and careful survey of a vast array of groups at the fringe of America’s religious life.

What The Religious Fringe proves is the rarity of creation ex nihilo in the birth of religions. Though their leaders often brag about their originality, new religions usually spring from some prior guru, tradition, or belief system. Sun Myung Moon’s teachings can be explained, for example, in part by the Korean religious and political context of the late 1940s and early ’50s.

Religious Fringe is not exhaustive, as its author readily admits, but Kyle does analyze the major fringe groups related to Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Kyle also scrutinizes movements such as Scientology that have no solid ties with a specific world religion.

While Kyle’s judgments are generally sound, there are some interpretive problems and a few errors that should be noted. For one, Kyle’s terminology is weak since he is caught between sociological and theological categories about cults and sects.

Second, Kyle occasionally allows his evangelical biases to substitute for arguments. To say that Christian Science and liberalism grew out of the “same impulses” is questionable. His contention that Christian Science “tolerates marriage” is unfair to the followers of Mrs. Eddy. Kyle argues that “the doctrine of purgatory is a version of reincarnation, since it is basically a belief that the soul can be purified after death.” Does he believe that the soul cannot be purified after death?

Finally, The Religious Fringe is filled with the disturbing silence of too many significant voices. For instance, we seldom hear from groups directly. Kyle relies on secondary literature, and even here he often neglects the best authors on given groups. James Penton and Raymond Franz would help on Kyle’s understanding of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Jerald and Sandra Tanner go unnoticed in the section on Mormonism, as do Kenneth Cragg and Seyyed Nasr on Islam-related bodies.

These omissions show how difficult it is to master the primary and secondary literature on alternative religions. That Kyle has not covered every group with the same quality (the New Age section is far superior to the one on Mormonism) is not surprising given the scope of this work. What is admirable is that Kyle has written so well on a complex topic that is typically either ignored or abused.

The Religious Fringe is an ambitious enterprise and an overall successful attempt to report on fringe groups without doing them injustice or excusing them from the critical questions that must be raised. Kyle’s book will do much to give the evangelical community a sense of the history and nature of these groups and provide an adequate background for apologetic and evangelistic work.

An Evangelical-And Liberal-Hero

William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain, by David Bebbington (Eerdmans, 270 pp., $14.99, paper). Reviewed by Doug Bandaw, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a contributing editor to The Freeman.

“There is a high degree of tension beween Christian faith and political activity,” writes David Bebbington in this well-written biography. “Whereas Christianity is about trust, love, holiness, and forgiveness, politics is about power, legislation, manipulation, and, in the last resort, force.” This tension between faith and politics can be seen in the successive election as president of four men claiming serious Christian faiths but embracing radically different political philosophies, and it may be most keenly felt with Bill Clinton, for whom, argued one religious activist, to vote for would be a sin.

Still, “there is nothing new under the sun.” In the late 1800s, William Ewart Gladstone, a devout believer, alternated with Benjamin Disraeli in dominating British politics. There were other important men of faith in politics at the time: John Bright, Lord Shaftesbury, and Lord Salisbury, for instance. But Gladstone was the preeminent Christian in public life in his day. As a result, not only did Gladstone have to struggle with how to apply his faith to the issues of his day, he also had to meet the criticism of those who believed his Christian commitment would be more properly kept in the closet.

Born in 1810, Gladstone was raised in an evangelical family. His father encouraged him to enter politics, and the father of a friend provided him with a parliamentary nomination and election at the age of 22. Originally a member of the Tory party, Gladstone at first opposed parliamentary reform, expansion of the suffrage, and the like. “In 1852, Gladstone was still a Conservative, believing in the rights of the crown and the aristocracy and aiming to defend the existing institutions of the country,” writes Bebbington. “By 1868, he had been transformed into the leader of the Liberal Party,” at which point he “set about a program of systematic reform.” Attacked as a radical at the time, his reforms look quite reasonable today: the British Liberal party believed in free markets and international nonintervention, for instance, in contrast to modern American liberals.

When he served as prime minister, Gladstone consciously, and unashamedly, applied his Christian world-view to controversies before him. His handling of foreign affairs was particularly noteworthy. Explains Bebbington “Gladstone felt a moral revulsion against the use of force to settle disputes between nations.… An awareness of the human cost of war strengthened his Christian belief in the maintenance of peace.” Gladstone was not a pacifist, but he believed in avoiding unnecessary international meddling that could lead to participation in senseless foreign conflicts.

Gladstone had to deal with many contentious issues—the status of Ireland, the relationship of the state to the Anglican Church, electoral reform, colonial rule, and the role of the crown. He was not always victorious, but his conduct was almost always exemplary.

Gladstone was clearly a giant of British politics: he left his fourth and final tour as prime minister at age 84 in 1894. But he was also a giant of the Christian faith, someone who, notes Bebbington, “was a great man because he was a sincere Christian.”

Should Theologians “Get A Life”?

Redeeming the Routines: Bringing Theology to Life,by Robert Banks (BridgePoint/Victor Books, 196 pp.; $12.99, paper). Reviewed by Roger E. Olson, professor of theology, Bethel College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, and coauthor of 20th Century Theology (IVP).

The theology debate is heating up among evangelicals. Gordon-Conwell theologian David Wells argues in his No Place for Truth (CT, July 19, 1993, p. 57) that the dethroning of his discipline largely accounts for the growing accommodation to secular culture among evangelicals. Now Fuller Seminary professor Robert Banks argues that professional academic theology is still too firmly on the throne of evangelicalism and needs to be overthrown in order to make room for a true theology of the laity.

Both Wells and Banks have axes to grind—but they are quite opposite and, unfortunately, aimed at each other. Banks’s book appears at first glance to be a handbook for developing a practical, lay-oriented theology. Insofar as it carries out that promise, it makes a valuable contribution to contemporary evangelical life and mission. But it too often degenerates into a diatribe against what Banks perceives as a great evil: professional, intellectual, academic, systematic theology, which he thinks is detached from real life. That which Wells so highly prizes, Banks decries and even insults ad infinitum ad nauseum. This would be a much stronger book if the author stuck to his positive proposals and dropped three-fourths of his barbs aimed at Wells’s (and my) discipline.

A commuter theology

The strength of Banks’s book lies in his concrete proposals for applying theology to everyday activities. Unfortunately, he thinks professional theologians are almost constitutionally unable to do this, and therefore it must be the province of lay Christians (“barefoot theologians”) who are untainted by the ivory-tower syndrome from which all academic systematic theologians suffer.

Banks excels when analyzing the “texture of daily life” in the modern secular world and relating it to Christianity. He rightly believes there must be a “distinctive Christian perspective” on life’s routines such as commuting, shopping, sleeping, and earning a living, and that the evangelical church has an unfulfilled responsibility to help ordinary Christians develop such a perspective.

What might a Christian perspective on commuting be? Banks says that commuting raises a number of important questions: “Do you really need a car at all, or can you make do with part-ownership with other members of your family or church?” and “What can we do about the fact that many of those who can least afford to commute long distances are the ones who often have to do so to find work?” As in many other cases, Banks does a better job of raising questions than offering constructive answers.

Another area of positive contribution lies in Banks’s treatment of “central features of modern life.” He calls for evangelical Christians to understand and confront these in more profound and practical ways. Among such features are popular attitudes and values, communicating and relating, social rituals and activities, and secular idols and religions.

Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the book is Banks’s seeming move away from the primacy of Scripture toward a more experientially based theology. He calls for lay Christians to take the lead in doing theology using a wide variety of tools, including discernment, experience, intuition, and simple observation of the world around them. In this new paradigm of theology (which sounds suspiciously like liberation theology’s method), reflection must follow experience and practice, not vice versa. This raises the question of how one knows how to evaluate experience and what practices to follow if one does not begin with reflection on biblical doctrines and principles. The danger is that the latter can easily become mere justifications for practices already settled on as “the right thing to do.”

Like Wells’s No Place for Truth, Banks’s book is valuable but one-sided. The truth is in the balance—the balance of intellectual reflection on biblical truth and practical, lay-oriented application of that truth to everyday life.

Deciphering God’s Worldwide Strategy

Operation World: The Day-by-Day Guide to Praying for the World (Fifth Edition), by Patrick Johnstone (Zondervan/ OM, 662 pp.; $12.99, paper). Reviewed by Stan Guthrie, associate editor of Pulse and columnist for Evangelical Missions Quarterly.

The widely used and quoted guide to the spiritual state of the globe, Operation World, has gained weight over the years, now tipping the scales in its fifth edition at 662 pages. The good news is that the weight gain is due mostly to an increase in muscle.

Organized in dictionary format, country by country, this fact-filled prayer manual comes packed with new political, social, and economic information for missions-minded prayer warriors. New entries for countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and Tajikistan, which used to be lumped under “USSR,” are noteworthy, though nearly all of the country reports have been expanded.

The fifth edition also provides new charts of useful information (such as “Comparison of Muslim and Christian growth rates” and “The World’s Protestant Missionary Force 1992”). Although Operation Word is arranged alphabetically so that readers can pray daily for a different part of the world or Christian ministry, all those who cannot resist dipping into a good almanac or encyclopedia will find this book hard to put down. New page headings and an improved thumb index make the search for information easier.

Operation World could have been more user-friendly. There is no topical index, and charts and graphs are occasionally difficult to decipher or hard to find. A computer version, available from Global Mapping International, may reduce these flaws. Still, Operation World remains indispensable for knowing what in the world God is doing.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.