"Jim and Casper Go To Church"

Today's post will not be about women in Scripture. Two reasons: 1) I did not really have time to sit down and read well enough to discuss another woman or a passage about women in the church. Tuesdays are usually my busy day in which I go visit a member in the nursing home, go to lunch with some folks from the church, and then play dominoes with them the entire afternoon (hard job I know). 2) Our church has started a book club and it has been a really good thing in my opinion. I love to read and discuss, and I feel like we have read good books and had discussions on a variety of topics (i.e. The Great Divorce, The Shack, Same Kind of Different As Me, etc). The book we read for tonight was no different. The book for discussion tonight was, Jim & Casper Go To Church. In this book, Jim Henderson (Christian) and Matt Casper (atheist) travel to different churches around the country and basically critique each church.

There are some values for reading this book. First, it is always good to hear a critique from someone on the "outside." By outside I mean, a person who is a non-believer and does not attend church. It is usually their critique that is the most honest and challenging. Too often, "insiders" (people accustomed to a certain way things are done) get too comfortable in their setting and become immune to seeing the flaws of what they are involved in. In this book, it is the same way. Casper offers great insights into what most churches have become. His main gripe about the church is that too often the church does not compel anyone to "do" anything with what they heard in the service. He observed that everything was about belief and nothing else. While this is a valid critique on our faith, I think it is somewhat an unfair assessment by Casper. 2) No matter what you think about Casper's critique/observation it causes all who read to take an honest look at the church they attend and ask the question, "is what we are doing consistent with Scripture?" 3) Along the same lines it asks the question of whether or not we attend church for our own benefit (what we can get out of it), or to be equipped to serve (what we can contribute) in the Kingdom of God. I fear that the former is what is driving church membership. 4) Shows the true value of authentic friendship. These two men seem to genuinely care about each other, and that relationship grows throughout the book.

There are of course other values to this book, but I thought those were the two most important benefits.

The book also left me frustrated. In all honesty, I probably would have written a glowing report on this book had I read it in seminary. However, after being a pastor for 7 months now, I think this book is a tad bit unfair.

First, these guys are going to a church for ONE service. They are trying to critique a whole church based on what they do in worship. This is unfair because no one can adequately critique anything in one church service. As a pastor, I would fear to be critiqued after one sermon or one church service. Churches are full of people, fallen people. They are susceptible to bad days, and to base an opinion on what one church does in one service seems to me a tad unfair.

Second, there is no way to preach on everything in one sermon. Meaning, that Casper's critique about a pastor not charging someone to "do" something at the end of the service is not exactly fair. This relates to my first objection. When people gather together for worship they are bringing in a variety of different experiences from the previous week. Perhaps some have lost a loved one, some are stressed about school, etc. Anyway, there are times when a pastor's message is not going to be to "do" something. Rather, people simply need to be encouraged and reminded that God is in control, God loves them, there is hope in the name of Jesus. They do not ALWAYS need to be challenged to do something. I have preached sermons where my application was simply to rest in the fact that they are loved by the God of the Ages. Trusting that when they remember that fact, the Spirit will drive them into action in His timing. It is impossible for a pastor to cover every aspect of the Christian faith in one sermon. Now to his point, there does seem to be this emphasis on belief rather than lifestyle. In other words, believe the right things and you will go to heaven. We have missed the mark on this one. Christianity is not all about "getting into heaven." Anyway, I thought that his critique on this aspect while valid on an overall scale, was unfair to the pastor's preaching the sermons he was hearing.

There are tons of other things that this book made me think about, and there were a lot of things that we discussed as a group. These were just initial thoughts to the book. I have more thoughts of course on the book, but I would recommend the book to anyone involved in church, or that has grown up in the church. I especially would recommend this book to anyone on a church staff. This book will make anyone think about what we call "church" and if what we do as a body lines up with Scripture.