A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church

Book Review: A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church by Warren Smith Dan Burrell, Ed.D. Before I do this review, it's important to do some "disclosure" caveats. First, I am friends with Warren Smith. I met him nearly a decade ago right after I moved to Charlotte and it was an instant connection. We come from different branches of the "evangelical" tree - he is grafted "reformed" in his theology having moved away from this Southern Baptist stock. I am what I prefer to call a "fundagelical" having been raised in a strident branch of fundamentalism with which I have since disassociated over matters ranging from "soteriology" (I reject the name it/claim it version of cheap salvation) to tone to raising issues of tradition to superseding doctrine. At the same time, I do not identify with the squishy theology and associations that have plagued the "evangelical" movement for the better part of sixty years. Thus, I find myself somewhere in between the two as a "fundagelical". Also, it would be inaccurate to call me a full-blown "Calvinist". (I like to say that I'm a Calvinist to the extent that I accept about 2.7 of the five petals of the TULIP and I reserve the right to define the terms.) In addition, I have worked with and for Smith over the years. I wrote for the Evangelical New Services which he owns and I also wrote regularly for the Charlotte World and other newspapers that he has owned. We have both taught for Southern Evangelical Seminary, have spoken together at conferences and have worked on projects together. In addition, I was shocked to discover that I am even quoted in this book - something of which I was unaware until I actually read it. However, this history with Warren may make me a tad bit more critical than I might otherwise be, just to demonstrate that I can write an even-handed review of this work. I might simply skip this exercise, except that I find the book too important to simply relegate to the stack of "read books" that clutters my offices. Having been asked to review it, I shall. Over the years, I have grown increasingly frustrated and at times disenfranchised from my conservative Christian heritage because of some of the trends and practices which seem to dominate evangelicalism and fundamentalism on a regular basis. There is a certain "lemming" mentality among Christians that I find disturbing, even though at times, I have found myself rushing headlong to the cliffs with my fellow evangelical friends. This is the only world I know in terms of my theology. Born and bred a Baptist, I have moved in the circles of Bible-believing Christianity my entire life. And I've watched the silliness and trendiness from a front-row seat. I remember trends like: week-long revivals, fighting the Southern Baptists, starting Christian schools, having a bus ministry, joining moral majority, opposing the World Council of Churches, prophecy conferences that assured us that Christ would return no later than 2007, Pastor'

Evangelism is a labor of love, but there are those who would exploit that love. "A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church" tells the story of Warren Cole Smith, a former evangelist who has some harsh words with the way much of evangelism is going these days. In particular, Smith is highly critical of what he perceives as Evangelism's movement away from the core message of Jesus Christ. The result is a no-holds-barred insider's perspective. "A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church" is a very much recommended read.

To which standards should churches and other Christian organizations be held accountable, and by whom? What are the roles of such groups, and the individuals of whom they are constituted? Do American churches and parachurch organizations further the Kingdom of God? More importantly, does your local church serve God in the manner of those in the early body of Christ? Most importantly, are you serving God in the ways in which you are gifted? These and many other questions are engaged lovingly & sternly by Warren Cole Smith in his successful effort to challenge Evangelicals and all Christians to critically examine their organizations, their ministries, and their lives. This is not a feel-good book, but a swift kick in the pants of the all too comfortable. Dare to submit prayerfully to the process.

Joel Osteen's effervescent smile to the contrary, all is not well in American Evangelicalism. If you grew up evangelical, or spent all your Christian life in that domain, you might, like the proverbial frog in the kettle, not know how influenced by American culture modern American Evangelicalism is. Warren Cole Smith, veteran journalist and fellow evangelical traveler, is our guide to how accomodative and consumeristic we evangelicals are in relation to culture. For instance, Smith argues that we evangelicals are just as prone to being power-hungry, materialistic and being builders of our own empires as anybody else, to the detriment of community. Evangelicals are also often guilty of a new provincialism. Provincialism usually means our outlook is narrowly determined by our small localized setting. For evangelicals, our narrowness is due to being stuck only in the "now." Regarding seeker-friendly churches that are seeking earnestly to be relevant, Smith states, "Everything about these new churches reflects the rootless, existential, modernist condition of the world." Smith says that such evangelicals are so into the "ever present now" that they are disconnected from the lessons of history, (what C. S. Lewis called the "clean sea breezes of the past.") (I wonder - could this be the reason that some thoughtful evangelicals have been attracted to Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, or even Roman Catholicism? It does bring to mind Joseph Sobran's comment that he "had rather be in a church that is 500 years behind the times that one that is five minutes behind the times, huffing and puffing, trying to catch up.") While many evangelical churches and ministries would give biblical doctrinal standards, it is their operational theology that gives away where their faith is. For example, many CCM Christian radio stations' formats are determined by a marketing strategy designed to reach a fictitious "Becky," who is 35, has two kids, and a not so great marriage. In other words, the airwave content is audience-driven, delivering positive feel-good music, that is "safe for the entire family." But, as Smith points out, the God we serve is anything but safe. In such a format, what becomes of pesky subjects like sin, repentance, and God's holiness? Smith also makes the case that the First Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening were fundamentally very different. He argues that, contrary to the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening did not bear lasting fruit, and generally speaking, resulted in many stony-ground hearers. Smith lays much of the blame for this failure at the feet of lawyer-turned-evangelist Charles Grandison Finney. It is perplexing to see how Finney remains a hero in evangelical circles when his theology is biblically nightmarish. For example, he said that revival is not supernaturally caused by God but is a "right use of the constituted means." He rejected the biblical idea of original sin, and - amazingly - the substitutionar

Warren Smith dives head first into some deep issues with the Evangelical movement. I appreciate his research and interviews with Christian leaders, in this book he offers a unique perspective on what has gone wrong with this fast growing movement. I agree with him that changes are needed in order for the church to truly be "salt and light in a culture starved for redemption".