A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church [Paperback]

Warren Cole Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 2009

"My name is Warren and I’m a recovering evangelical."

With these words, Warren Cole Smith begins his book A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church.

Since World War II, there has been a flowering of evangelical activity and parachurch organizations. But something troubling has happened in spite of this growth and the political and financial power it has created. Overall church attendance is not growing. Americas high divorce rate is just one of many melancholy cultural indicators. Is it possible that the evangelical movement has not been an antidote for this decline but has actually caused this decline in the health and vigor of the true body of Christ?

Using solid research and original interviews with some of Americas leading Christian thinkers, journalist and editor Warren Smith examines the condition of the evangelical movement, offering an assessment of what’s gone wrong as it has grown in power and size and what must be done if it is to be salt and light in a culture in need of redemption. Smith isn’t afraid to name the names of many evangelical leaders but it is because he loves the church that he calls her to repentance. He develops the argument that instead of evangelizing and making obedient disciples of Christ, the church has become part of the cultural decline of the West. A Lover’s Quarrel is a penetrating look at the current state of theology and practice in the American evangelical movement and offers a helpful, if difficult, way forward.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an important book for a crucial moment in our history as Christians in the United States. Besides being richly biblical in its analysis of contemporary evangelicalism, this book is written by a veteran journalist with hard-hitting and inescapable data to support his conclusions. I highly recommend this book."

Dr. Michael Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California --Dr. Michael Horton

Review

Warren Cole Smith's "A Lover's Quarrel With The Evangelical Church" is the perfect dose of tough love that the evangelical community needs to become a better (and much more attractive) witness to the secular world. Warren easily wins the "quarrel" by using biblically based arguments backed by solid research that don't leave much wiggle-room for debate. It might make some Christians uncomfortable, which is exactly why they should read this book.

William Lobdell, former religion editor of "The Los Angeles Times" and author of "Losing My Religion"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Authentic; 1st edition (May 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606570285
• ISBN-13: 978-1606570289
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #584,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM?, June 23, 2009

By 

Daniel Plowman (Black Mountain Ridgeline, North Carolina) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church (Paperback)

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 substitutionary atonement. Evangelicals are acting like the heirs of Finney when they do "body count evangelism," amassing large numbers of "converts" but not integrating them into a community of believers with fellow disciples-in-progress, assuring accountability. What is telling is that the First Great Awakening came through the means of the church, while the Second came through the means of the parachurch, through mass evangelism.

The author also borrows from Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death," when he argues that we now live in a video culture. And -- in such a culture, entertainment will thrive, whereas in a print-based culture, reason will thrive.

But, it is up to the church to remember that it is by the foolishness of preaching that God saves. It is preposterous to suppose that the Word of God loses its power due to being trumped by multi-media.

Despite all the critique, Smith offers a way out. A trip to India to see the work of K. P. Yonannah's Gospel for Asia figures in his solution. You'll have to read the book to learn more.

I took this book on our family's beach vacation a week ago and I am still ruminating on some of the things Warren Smith had to say. If all the trappings of modern evangelicalism leave you nothing but hungry for something more substantial, then read this book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars thought provoking book, May 20, 2009

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S T M - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church (Paperback)

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".

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Provacative questions, simplistic answers, July 23, 2009

By 

Michael Duran "cerebral grump" (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church (Paperback)

Christians are notorious for shooting their own wounded. One evidence of this could be the recent spate of books written by theologians, ex-ministers, or disenfranchised Christians, who take aim at the American Church, its leaders, its beliefs, and its trappings. Statistics seem to bear out a drift away from traditional religion and a growing gap between what we believe and what our religious institutions have become. But to what degree is this barrage of critical buckshot "removing cancer" or "shooting our wounded"?

I, too, have many gripes about the state of contemporary evangelicalism. But who doesn't? Images of a contrite Ted Haggard and a perpetually sunny Joel Osteen are just bookends to the disturbing collage that is the American church. Still, I've been reluctant to join this growing legion of dissenters for several reasons. Despite its charlatans, sex scandals, money grubbers, and milquetoasts, it remains the Body of Christ and there are many, many, fine people within it. No matter how deep the dysfunction, Christians are commanded to "love one another." Perhaps that's why the title of Warren Cole Smith's new book caught my attention -- A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church.

The objects of Smith's "quarrel" are not trivial. Nor are they anything new. For decades, American Christians have been warned about the corrosive effects of modernity and materialism, the danger of relying upon marketing models and the therapeutic industry to grow people and churches. Smith rightly connects evangelicalism's waning growth and cultural impact -- and some of its more blatant public sins -- to deeper philosophical, theological, compromises. Along the way, the author uses history, methodology and current events to deconstruct "The Evangelical Myth" and its components.

Herein lies the bulk of the book and the meat of Smith's objections. But chronicling the deficiencies of the evangelical church is like shooting fish in a barrel -- it's just way too easy. To Smith's credit, his analysis is neither mean-spirited nor superficial; he writes as one who has a genuine stake in the people and the outcome. But after a while I found myself growing tired of the analysis and wanting constructive answers. Which is where the book lacks, in my opinion.

For instance, Smith asks, "Does Scripture dictate a preferred medium for the communication of the gospel?" (pg. 176). It's a loaded question, especially after the author has spent significant time establishing that "media are not neutral," (pg. 178), and that radio and television have negatively influenced how we perceive and present the Gospel. He answers, "Words - and not pictures, drama, or any other medium - seem to be the preferred strategy of God, of Jesus, and of Scripture" (Pg. 179). Of course, by entering history when He did, God limited His "preferred strategy" to those of the times. But is that an endorsement of one method and a disavowal of every future medium? Furthermore, Smith must concede that technology assists the spread of his own message -- even if that message calls into question the very medium he employs.

Perhaps the most disturbing of Smith's inferences occur in his identifying modern evangelicalism with the Second Great Awakening, and then casting the former movement in near heretical terms. As such, in Smith's estimate, Charles Finney is the precursor to today's televangelist, wheedling "commitments" from his listeners with melodramatic prowess, and unfurling the "body count" as evidence of God's blessing. Along the way, oodles of evangelical "icons" are thus incriminated. But really, was Billy Graham that destructive to the fabric of American Christianity? There's no question that Arminianism and premillennialism have shaped certain aspects of evangelical methodology. But is Reformed theology really the antidote? In this, I found Smith's "quarrel" a bit more like a "quibble."

Perhaps Smith's lack of concrete solutions is indicative of the nature of the problem. Evangelicalism's issues are vastly more complex than a single solution will provide. Yes, the Church should contemplate the downside of electronic media. But by not using the mediums of the day, Christians risk isolating themselves from the culture they are commissioned to reach. We are right to question the real impact of mega-churches. But is adopting a numeric cap upon the local church the real answer? Are hymns and liturgies imperative to the health of a church, and are overhead projectors really that big a deal?

It's hard to argue with the thesis of A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church, and in that I would recommend it. No objective observer could rightly give American evangelicalism a clean bill of health. Warren Cole Smith does a good job cataloging the symptoms and exploring their root causes, asking provocative questions in the right spirit. My quarrel is not with the author's diagnosis, as much as his treatment.