Church: Why Bother?: My Personal Pilgrimage

As usual, Philip Yancey explores the issue of church worship in detail. He boldly surveys the subjects of corporate worship, fellowship, rejection, acceptance, Biblical studies, etc. He is one of the best Christian writers of this generation and continues to amaze me with his profound and prolific insights. A very interesting book to say the least.

A quick read but a comforting one to anyone who has grown disenchanted with the church. Yancey, in his typical fashion, acknowledges the readers feelings while also challening the reader to explore deeper issues. This book is no different in challenging the reader to move from being a consumer of church to being an active participant. Helpful, reflective, and refreshing.

Everyone who has attended church with regularity can understand boredom and indifference among the congregants. Services are often not conducive to worship. Avoiding an abstract, depersonalized discussion of the matter, Philip Yancey relates his own reflections and experiences during his Christian pilgrimage. Rather than going to church services wondering how they will minister to US, we should go to church services to worship GOD. Our attention should be directed outward ("How did God view my worship?") rather than inward ("I got nothing out of that church service.") Sometimes, perhaps most times, we have to conduct our worship of God DESPITE being in church. But that is what we should do. I liked this personalized and down-to-earth approach of one layman talking to another. (One is reminded of C.S. Lewis's REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMS where Lewis says he is not presuming to instruct, he is merely comparing notes, like two school boys talking shop and helping each other over difficulties their schoolmaster has long forgotten about.) I enjoyed Eugene Peterson's Foreword too. This easily readable book (only 100 pages long) is good for personal reading as well as group discussion.

For those on the inside who wonder what the church is doing, and those on the outside who criticize the church for not doing better, this book is highly recommended. In his musings, Yancey is insightfully aware of the foibles and and foibles of the church in all of it's humanness, yet he also declares that the church is the means God has chosen to be in the world today. As he wrote in "What's So Amazing About Grace," "I left the church because I found so little grace there. I came back because I found grace nowhere else." I'm buying a copy for each member of the session.

This had to be Yancey's quickest "read." In his three chapters he gives all those who are cynical about the church a view of the church that is refreshing. He reminds the reader of what the church CAN be and what difference it can make. The second chapter had to be the most innovative (as Yancey always is) with his contemporary images of the church, describing the church the way the apostle Paul might if he were writing in the late 20th century. After reading the chapter I am no longer ashamed to admit that I too have a "crutch" faith. In his 3rd chapter, Yancey meanders and doesn't conclude with a bang. The climax is found right in the middle of this short book. If you have a friend who lives by the motto: "Jesus, Yes...Church, No." please get them this book.