Book Review: Why We Love the Church (5 Stars)
Kevin DeYoung’s latest book, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion, is his second collaboration with fellow author and good friend, Ted Kluck. Both collaborations have received Christianity Today’s “Book of the Year Awards” so the duo is rapidly gaining attention as two of the finest authors in the Christian market.
What makes this book special is its balance of scholarship and accessibility. Few books today prove themselves to be so well thought out from a historical, cultural, and Biblical perspective while at the same time mixing in genuine humor and relatability (this may or may not be a word) at the layman’s level.
As with their previous collaboration, Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be), DeYoung and Kluck alternate chapters with DeYoung providing the pastoral angle and Kluck bringing the “I grew up in the church and work a job and am raising a family just like everyone else and I still really love the church” perspective. In my opinion, there is not a single boring page in the entire book (including the acknowledgements at the end), and each topic is presented in a memorable and graspable manner.
The book is essentially a response to the recent wave of people who are leaving the church to find Jesus. The book addresses many concerns of today’s church-leavers and offers honest, balanced, and Biblical responses to them all. The book is careful not to gloss over the many short-comings of the church, all the while patiently pointing out that the church has never been perfect and never will be until Jesus returns. The point of the church and Christianity is not that it is or ever has been comprised of perfect people assembling themselves together to comprise faultless churches. In fact, it’s just the opposite. And regardless of the church’s many flaws, it is nonetheless the bride of Christ and Jesus is its head and chief-cornerstone, and for those reasons it is to be loved and never abandoned.
I really could go on, but I suggest that you read the book yourself. I give it my highest recommendation.
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Here are some quotes I enjoyed that will, perhaps, persuade you to go buy the book yourself. – Don’t try to burn your friend’s copy. It’s not like a cd; it will only turn to ashes. Ok, the quotes:
“Church isn’t boring because we’re not showing enough film clips, or because we play an organ instead of a guitar. It’s boring because we neuter it of its importance (102).”
“Churchless Christianity makes about as much sense as a Christless church, and has just as much Biblical warrant (164).”
“Christianity is not whatever we want it to be. It is, whether we like it or not, organized religion. And the church is what gives its organization shape and definition. That’s why people don’t like the church. Sure, she’s old, stale, and sinister at times. But the other reason -the main reason, I think- people don’t like the church is because the church has walls. It defines truth, shows us the way to live, and tells us the news we must believe if we are to be saved (178).”
“It’s more than a little ironic that the same folks who want the church to ditch the phony, plastic persona and become a haven for broken, imperfect sinners are ready to leave the church when she is broke, imperfect, and sinful (211-212).”
“What we need are a fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. That’s my dream for the church – God’s redeemed people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God’s glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with relentless, often unnoticed, plodding consistency (222).”
“So I guess this is my final advice: Find a good local church, get involved, become a member, stay there for the long haul. Put away thoughts of revolution for a while and join the plodding visionaries. Go to church this Sunday and worship there in spirit and truth, be patient with your leaders, rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, bear with those who hurt you, and give people the benefit of the doubt. While you are there, sing like you mean it, say hi to the teenager no one notices, welcome the blue hairs and the nose-ringed, volunteer for the nursery once in a while. And yes, bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everyone else, invite a friend to church, take the new couple out for coffee, give to the Christmas offering, be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet, enjoy the Sundays that click for you, pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t, and do not despise ‘the day of small things’ (Zechariah 4:10).”
“The Church is a whore, but she is still my mother.”
I’m learning to agree more with their ultimate conclusion, but the American Church, by and large, is still a boring concept that fewer and fewer people are turning to in their search for Jesus.
What’s boring about the concept of church? I’m assuming you’re talking about the bad displays of it, as opposed to the concept as originally intended.
“Here are some quotes I enjoyed that will, perhaps, persuade you to go buy the book yourself. – Don’t try to burn your friend’s copy. It’s not like a cd; it will only turn to ashes.”
Made me laugh…!!!
I disagree that Christianity is, whether we like it or not, organized religion. “Organized” suggests following all dogmatic tradition. Many of these traditions have lost their original meaning and are now meaningless and repetitive actions that carry a fraction of their original purpose and meaning. I do agree that without a proper support system or extreme will power it would be difficult to remain on course in one’s spiritual journey. This does not, however, mean that it is impossible or wrong. Also I feel that church can to some, be a hindrance of their spiritual path and therefore would be detrimental to remain surrounded by such conditions.
And the last paragraph only suggests reaching out to those at church. This to me seems less important than reaching out to those outside of the church.
I suppose it depends on your understanding of the word “organized.” Read the book to see how he defines it and why he uses it.
What traditions have lost their meaning? Communion? No. Corporate singing? No. Public preaching of the Word? No. Fellowship? No. Baptism? No.
“This does not, however, mean that it is impossible or wrong. Also I feel that church can to some, be a hindrance of their spiritual path and therefore would be detrimental to remain surrounded by such conditions.” I guess he wrote the book in response to thoughts like this.
Reaching out ONLY to those at church is not biblical. Reaching out to those at church FIRST is. But that wasn’t the point of his paragraph. As a whole, I don’t want to deal with criticisms of the book from people who haven’t read it and who seem more about arguing than asking questions to make sure they are understanding things correctly.
Galatians 6:10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
I wasn’t criticizing the book just the quote you chose from it. I understand that there is no context to the paragraph quoted but there also was no reason stated for why that paragraph was placed in your post. The assumption I made was that those quotes were ideas that you agreed with and were promoting. My apologies for any negativity, this was not my wish.