Quit Church

I was provided a print copy of Quit Church by Chris Sonksen for review.

The subtitle of this book is "Because Your Life Would Be Better If You Did", so we start out with a semi-clever attempt to draw in readers who might not be interested in the real topic: how to make church more effective. I'm not much in favor of tricking readers into looking at a particular book, but decided to give it a look anyway.

Church attendance is down, can't argue that point. So, we get many attempts to help local churches to change how they do things in order to put more people in the seats. This has become a new buzzword in the field. On Goodreads alone, type "quit church" in the search bar and you get 33 entries. 

We have new spin put on old ideas, bottom line; you all suck and if you'd do what I say, God will bless you abundantly. Even the foreward says: "Read Quit Church and do what it says" and "If you want the people in your church to have transformational encounters with Jesus, read Quit Church and do what it says." The arrogance astounds me. How about: Read the Bible and do what IT says. Taking a pop culture attitude is part of the problem, not the solution. Present the Word of God honestly and clearly, do what the Bible teaches and God in his wisdom will see to the rest.

As you can probably tell this book did not appeal to me. As an elder at my church I would not bring this attitude to our church family.

The book is well organized and does hide some cogent points within the pop-culture presentation, so I can't fault it there. But I think you can tell which book I will read and follow.

Mike