The cover of my copy of Christianity for the Rest of Us:How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith by Diana Butler Bass proudly proclaims that Marcus Borg said it is “the most important book of the decade about emerging Christianity and the renewal of mainline congregations. ” While I will agree that it was a good read, I don’t know that I would necessarily give it quite such lavish praise.
Bass visits congregations of various “mainline” Protestant congregations across the United States and develops ten signposts of renewal that were present in those churches. These signposts range from discernment, contemplation, reflection, beauty, and more. Not every signpost was present in every church, but each church did have at least one of them. I appreciated the fact that in all ten of these chapters it never seemed that Bass was trying to portray a one-size-fits-all solution to living into these areas of ministry.
Throughout the book Bass uses the language of “tourists” and “pilgrims” to describe the involvement of individuals in these churches. She notes that in today’s highly mobile and transient society that people often become spiritual tourists, moving from one place to another but never becoming deeply involved. She likens these tourists to spiritual nomads, wandering about the desert of modern spirituality alone, often without direction or destination. She contrasts this depiction with that of the pilgrim. Both may be wanderers of a sort, but the pilgrim does so with a purpose and the intention of ultimately arriving at a meaningful destination. This metaphor of journeying is used throughout the book, both with regards to the experiences of the people the author meets in the process of researching and writing the book as well as the author’s own experience.
One of the reflections Bass shares near the end of the book is that most of these churches did not self-identify themselves as being “red” or “blue” politically. While many had a majority of Democrats, most sought to be more “purple,” finding a middle way in the midst of the political divisiveness that currently seems to plague our country. This was a refreshing counterpoint to what I perceived to be a fair amount of conservative-bashing earlier in the book. Bass seemed to be saying that while these churches were of the liberal or progressive persuasion theologically speaking, that did not necessarily mean that the political views of individual parishioners were universally liberal.
I think it would be fair to say that the main point of this book is to show that renewal and growth can take and is taking place in mainline Protestant churches, not just in Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Bass goes to great lengths to show that the churches discussed in this book are not such churches, often portraying them in opposition to these traditions. She also portrays these churches as being a new, better way of approaching older mainline Protestantism, a group she refers to on numerous occasions as the “frozen chosen.”
Since I am from a tradition that I feel does not qualify as part of the “mainline” Bass refers to or the Evangelicals and Pentecostals she opposes, I found myself in an awkward place as I tried to find perspective on this book. The denomination I am a part of, the Church of the Brethren, has a very wide ranging constituency, from far-left liberals to far-right conservative evangelicals. It is also a denomination largely made up of small congregations, much smaller than the average size of 300 persons of the churches in Bass’s study. Ultimately I found myself appreciating the book and finding good ideas in it, but never quite connecting with the context that it was written from or intended for.
To Read or Not to Read: Well, maybe. If you have an interest in how Christianity is changing to adapt to our increasingly post-Christendom, postmodern society, then probably so. But if you don’t have some familiarity with the context of mainline Protestantism then be forewarned that you may feel like somewhat of an outsider looking in at times. And don’t expect to find anything about the emergent church movement, the missional church, or any other renewal efforts taking place outside of mainline Protestantism. If you can get past these it’s an easy and relative enjoyable read that provides one vantage point on how Christianity is evolving in the 21st century.
Wikipedia could use your input on its Emrging Church article.