I don’t like writing about books before I have completed reading them but I need to say a few things about John H. Armstrong’s book Your Church Is Too Small: Why Unity In Christ’s Mission Is Vital to the Future of the Church.

 

It is apparent from the beginning that this book is a challenge. It is a challenge laid at the feet of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox believers and many of them will find it too difficult to meet. Nevertheless I think it is necessary.

 

Any book with the support of J.I. Packer (who wrote the intro), Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, Chuck Colson, James Kushiner and others should not be ignored. Any book that opens with quotes from Karl Barth, Frederick Buechner, C.S. Lewis and Robert Webber should not be ignored. I will let the first few chapters speak for themselves through the following quotes:

 

In speaking of the movement of new Christians toward a more united expression of orthodox Christian belief regardless of denomination he writes "this one faith is developing in ways we would never have thought possible while we were still indulging in the cultural luxury of seeing other Christians as our enemies. Many of us have begun to drink deeply from the wells of various Christian traditions."

 

A true challenge to the mainstream of Christianity in North America – "True Christian faith is not found in personal religious feelings but in the historical and incarnational reality of a confessing church."

 

A challenge that hits very close to home for many evangelical churches:

 

"(North) American Christians talk a great deal about megashifts, which has led us to evaluate the performance of the church endlessly. In the process, multitudes of pragmatists have made the church a proverbial "wax nose" shaped by the newest book (irony noted) or seminar on trends and techniques. This approach is often based on polls, ministry/spiritual gift inventories, and various theories rooted in marketing. A major development within many local congregations is to write mission/vision statements. We are right to be weary of many of these approaches since they sap our collective soul dry and fail to give us a big vision of what God intends to do throughout the world."

 

Finally (for now) on why people (especially women) are leaving the evangelical side of the church in droves (backed by statistical evidence):

 

"The reasons for this exodus are numerous – loneliness, boredom, lack of community, church teaching that fails to go into the important truths of the faith, and the inability of the church to reach people who are suffering or going through deep trials, and more."

 

Wow. Who can relate to these things? I would hazard a guess many of us can. Anyhow – stay tuned for my full review.