Great Giveaway, The: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies (Paperback)

by David E. Fitch (Author)
Key Phrases: traditional evangelical worship, evidentiary apologetics, postmodern evangelism, The Great Giveaway, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This is a searing but loving insider critique of the individualism that marks North American evangelicals. Fitch, senior pastor of the Life on the Vine Christian community in Arlington Heights, Ill., blames an embrace of modernism for attempts by evangelicals to "individualize, commodify, and package Christianity." He criticizes mega-churches that end up functioning like capitalist businesses with CEO-style pastors judging success by the number of "decisions for Christ" produced. Each chapter outlines the various ways evangelicalism has "given away" its influence and then offers concrete practices designed to help the church reclaim its mission. Fitch's most scathing criticism is saved for the evangelical willingness to embrace modern psychology, which he blasts as patient-centered rather than Christ-centered. He challenges evangelical churches to think smaller (in terms of congregation size), place less focus on coercive evangelism, return to communal catechesis, offer more liturgical worship and provide opportunities for small group intimacy where Christians can confess their sins, repent, read scripture and pray together regularly. Intellectually rigorous, this book's critical tone will undoubtedly upset many conservative evangelicals, but will point the way for the more moderate ones for years to come. (Oct. 15)
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Review
A new crop of leaders is emerging. The Great Giveaway cuts a clear path into the future. -- Robert Webber, author of Ancient-Future Faith

A stern but truthful diagnosis of the state of evangelicalism's captivity to America. -- Stephen Fowl, author, Engaging Scripture

Dr. Fitch offers an important work for evangelicals who seek hope for the church beyond pragmatics and culture wars. -- Brian McClaren, author and pastor

His analysis is trenchant and motivated out of love for the body of Christ. He deserves a hearing. -- Gerry Wisz, Aspiring Retail

This book will provide an alternative to the failure of imagination on the part of many Christians in our society. -- Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books; annotated edition edition (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080106483X
• ISBN-13: 978-0801064838
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #94,439 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book on recovering what it means to be the church, December 19, 2005

By	Darryl Dash "DashHouse" (Etobicoke, ON Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A lot of books critique the modern evangelical church. A critique can be helpful, but what is even more useful is some help on how to be the church more faithfully. It's even better if this help is given from someone who is thoughtful, not just pragmatic, and a practitioner, not just a theoretician.

The Great Giveaway is a book that offers this type of help. It's written by David E. Fitch, pastor of Life on the Vine Christian Community in Long Grove, Illinois.

"The thesis of the book is that evangelicalism has 'given away' being the church in North America." How? By forfeiting the practices that constitute being the church.

According to Fitch, evangelicalism has given away being the church by accepting the assumptions of modernism, which are increasingly suspect.

The Great Giveaway examines how the church has given away eight functions of the church to modernity, and offers solutions on how to recover each function:

-Our definition of success - We measure success by size because we have accepted the modern values of individualism and efficiency. Big churches are seen as successful, when it is more difficult to be the church past a certain size. Instead, success should be measured by measuring faithfulness rather than size.

-Evangelism - We rely on arguments, presentations, and proofs in our Gospel presentations, rather than embodying the reality of Jesus Christ being lived within our churches.

-Leadership - We have imported CEO-styles of leadership into the church, and measured pastors by success in ministry more than faithfulness to Christ. CEO-style leaders are isolated and it is assumed they can manage their own sanctification. Instead, the church needs to rediscover leadership as servanthood and not as vocational success.

-Worship - We measure success in worship by positive emotional experiences and the hearing of "good" sermons. In other words, the individual self is at the center of worship, and that individual self has been more formed by the post-Christian world than by the reality of God. Instead, we should reclaim worship practices that form us into the experience of God, rather than attempting to shape God into our experience.

-Preaching - Expository preaching is not as biblical as we think. It allows both the preacher and the audience to control the Word, and it often results in "to do" lists. Instead, preaching should proclaim the reality of who God is, and invite us to live in that reality.

-Justice - Our definition of justice is more shaped by liberal democracy and capitalism by Scripture. We need to recapture the Biblical ideal of justice, and learn how to live in capitalism but not of it.

-Spiritual Formation - We have accepted therapy and psychology, and in many cases have substituted these for the biblical practices of confession, repentance, and speaking the truth in love in the context of community.

-Moral Education - Our children are shaped by a post-Christian culture rather than by the reality of Christ lived out in church. We need to reclaim practices that raise up our children to be faithful followers of Christ.

Fitch writes:

"We must recover the truly amazing way of life given to us as people by God through his redemption in Jesus Christ. The only way we can resist the totalizing forces of late capitalism and its derivatives is by recovering being the church. Is this not possible?...I hope this book gives hope and direction to seminarians, pastors of small churches, and all those people who have tired of evangelicalism's incessant marketing and mega-sizing. May we start gatherings of people that practice the practices of being the body of Christ. As difficult as it might be, let us join to together and find our way back to the practices of being the people of God under the reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For he truly is the hope of the world."

I love the idea of developing a reinvigorated ecclesiology. I am sometimes frustrated by those who dismiss the church because of its current state. Fitch doesn't do this. Instead, he imagines what it should be.

I also love the depth of this book. Many of the individual chapters contain more to think about than some whole books I've read. The endnotes (over 30 pages) are a gold mine. The Great Giveaway is very well thought out, and it stimulates thinking rather than giving all the answers.

I have rarely read a book that has stimulated so much thinking. At times I wished that I had more concrete action steps and a clear picture of what such a church. Instead, Fitch did exactly what he described in his chapter on preaching: he refused to give me a to-do list, and instead unfurled a reality, and invited me to enter in.

This is easily one of the top books that I have read this year.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heated but Thoughtful, June 18, 2007

By	J. Miller (LA, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This biting critique of the modern American church has basically lifted the veil off the capitalistic, consumeristic, numbers-oriented megachurches. David Fitch, Pastor of a church just 20 minutes from the headlining, 10,000 member Willow Creek Community Church, levels a pretty harsh attack on the big churches. While there are positive suggestions for alternative church models at the end of every chapter, it's clear that Fitch has a bone to pick.

He goes systematically through the modern church's emphasis on quantifiable success, evangelism, leadership without moral accountability, emotive worship, expository preaching that does not take place in community, justice that is farmed out to parachurch organizations, spiritual formation that is farmed out to psychiatrists, and education of children that is entrusted to an areligious public school system.

For anyone whose lived in the world of the megachurch, this is a really fun read. It's what we whisper about over coffee on the patio when the sermon has taught us 7 steps to better marriages or when the Good Friday service is "exciting" rather than sobering. Fitch has a determined, analytical mind. I hope he writes more.

The downside is that his alternatives sound like an afterthought that do not admit to their own weaknesses. It's very dubious that he's found an alternative to megachurches that is itself without just as many flaws. He's not nuanced enough to suggest that he's offering a cooperative alternative in a megachurch culture. Rather, they're wrong and he's right. Secondly, chapter seven, on spiritual formation, is a bit insensitive. Though he credits this to modern ideologies, it might be his personal style.

But everyone who's interested in the evolution of church culture and the development of new models of community should definitely read this book. Anyone who's either been to or resented the megachurches, everyone whose ever used or disparaged the word emergent, and pretty much anyone else who wants to know where church is going should read Fitch.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do yourself a favor and read this book!, January 9, 2007

By	B. Brisco (KC, KS, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fitch's overall intention in the book is to show how modernity has transformed clear gospel teaching into modernistic trends, he does this by looking at eight areas including success, evangelism, leadership, the production of experience, preaching, justice, spiritual formation, and moral education. Then the "task" of the book is to (1) examine the ways we have "given away" being the church to modernity by allowing its influence to individualize, universalize, syncretize, and commodify the tasks, truths, and even the very salvation we have been given as a people from god through Jesus Christ, and (2) to offer practices to evangelicals by which we may receive back being the church, the people of God ruled by Jesus as Lord in resistance to such modern influences.

List strengths of book.
With each of the eight areas of discussion there are clear strengths to be found in the explanation and solutions offered, however the strongest areas of the book include the chapters dealing with success, evangelism and spiritual formation. With the topic of success, Fitch contends that we measure success by size because we have accepted the modern values of individualism and efficiency. Instead, success should be measured by measuring faithfulness rather than size. With the topic of evangelism he states that we rely on arguments, presentations, and proofs in our Gospel presentations, rather than embodying the reality of Jesus Christ being lived within our churches. And with spiritual formation we have accepted therapy and psychology, and in many cases have substituted these for the biblical practices of confession, repentance, and speaking the truth in love in the context of community. Additionally, the book includes over thirty pages of excellent notes for further study and reflection.

List weaknesses of book.
While I believe there will be more than a few people who believe Fitch's assessment is incorrect because they find it difficult to see beyond a modern perspective, I find very little not to like about this book.