I may not be popular in my review, however, I give the book, Why Church Matters, by Joshua Harris, mixed reviews.
The first half is the part I could have done without. To be brief, on page 29 he points out how church is more than a bible study or a small group, or coming together with believers for encouragement and fellowship and says that "none can provide an individual believer with the leadership of a pastor." This was a little offensive to me. Does he really believe that one human, all of us sinners and saved by grace, has a corner stone on leadership just because we are a pastor? Looking carefully at scripture I am sure many a believer will be stunned to see that pastor is mentioned only one time in the bible, one time, and it is pluralized. (See Eph. 4:11). Not compelling evidence to base the authority of the church on!
Then there is the use of him capitalizing the word church in his book, again, check out scripture and see that it is not capitalized either. I took this all in stride though, when I realized the author himself is a pastor. I guess when your livelihood rests on this title, then of course you would do your best to persuade someone they must attend a church under a qualified pastor. Without a congregation, his livelihood is gone. I took this like any other sales pitch in life...everyone who stands to make money off something will tell you that they have the best product that you can't live without.
On a more positive note, I did enjoy the last half of the book. I felt that this could have stood alone as his whole point. Choosing your church, rescuing Sunday, were chapters that gave practical advice for anyone seeking a church. I also appreciated that he stressed sound doctrine, preaching the word of God and outreach as some of his main reasons to choose a church. I think many current pew sitters need to evaluate our current church on this advice-loved that he did not mention how you needed, air conditioning, comfy chairs, rock band, smoke screen, dynamic children's entertainment and activities as the reason to choose a church!
If anyone would like to balance this book out properly, then I highly recommend reading, Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna.
I was given a copy of the book to review, free of charge, from the blogging for books program, in exchange for my honest review.
The first half is the part I could have done without. To be brief, on page 29 he points out how church is more than a bible study or a small group, or coming together with believers for encouragement and fellowship and says that "none can provide an individual believer with the leadership of a pastor." This was a little offensive to me. Does he really believe that one human, all of us sinners and saved by grace, has a corner stone on leadership just because we are a pastor? Looking carefully at scripture I am sure many a believer will be stunned to see that pastor is mentioned only one time in the bible, one time, and it is pluralized. (See Eph. 4:11). Not compelling evidence to base the authority of the church on!
Then there is the use of him capitalizing the word church in his book, again, check out scripture and see that it is not capitalized either. I took this all in stride though, when I realized the author himself is a pastor. I guess when your livelihood rests on this title, then of course you would do your best to persuade someone they must attend a church under a qualified pastor. Without a congregation, his livelihood is gone. I took this like any other sales pitch in life...everyone who stands to make money off something will tell you that they have the best product that you can't live without.
On a more positive note, I did enjoy the last half of the book. I felt that this could have stood alone as his whole point. Choosing your church, rescuing Sunday, were chapters that gave practical advice for anyone seeking a church. I also appreciated that he stressed sound doctrine, preaching the word of God and outreach as some of his main reasons to choose a church. I think many current pew sitters need to evaluate our current church on this advice-loved that he did not mention how you needed, air conditioning, comfy chairs, rock band, smoke screen, dynamic children's entertainment and activities as the reason to choose a church!
If anyone would like to balance this book out properly, then I highly recommend reading, Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna.
I was given a copy of the book to review, free of charge, from the blogging for books program, in exchange for my honest review.
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