Using Jesus to Promote Churchianity
First, I am extremely impressed with Waterbrook Multnomah’s Blogging for Books program. It was only 5 days ago that I posted my review on “Blogging for Books” (see my review of Under the Overpass) and ordered my next free review book, Mere Churchianity by Michael Spencer.
Believe it or not, that book arrived yesterday, and I started reading it last night.
Already, I can tell that Spencer has a good understanding of modern, traditional church culture.
I loved this statement:
“Jesus is used as a symbol to approve what we already are, to bless what we are already pursuing, and to prefer the people we are most similar to.”
I’m looking forward to Spencer’s answer. Since I followed his blog when he was alive, I think he’ll point us toward “Jesus-shaped spirituality.” I’m interested to see how he defines this in the book.
Anyway, if you haven’t signed up for Blogging for Books yet, you definitely should. This is a great program for bloggers who love to read. In fact, my wife, Margaret, even decided to sign up and start writing reviews.
Thanks! I’d seen this program before, or programs like it, but when you mentioned a book I actually want to read I went ahead and signed up. I’m curious to read your review.
Rick,
They have alot of different kinds of books. Which one did you request? Mere Churchianity?
-Alan
That book is wonderful, I cannot wait to review it. I’ve already read it and revisiting it will be wonderful.
Michael’s death was very sad because he was such a helpful voice in the world of internet thoughts about Jesus following. He died before the book was published…I’m thankful to the Lord that this book made it into hard copy format.
Alan,
I read it not long after it came out. I was going to blog about it (more of a commentary than a review) but haven’t had time. I also thought he had a good understanding of American church culture, but all the problems he listed simply weren’t news to me. I feared it might simply be a re-hash of everything I’ve always heard, but then in the second half he really changed his angle to something I wasn’t totally expecting. So, it was a good book and hope to get to writing about it soon.
You should also join BookSneeze.com. I’ve been reviewing books from there for a while.