Adventures In Missing the Point: How the Culture-controlled Church Neutered the Gospel

(Brian D. McLaren & Tony Campolo. Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2003.). Review by Kevin Miller.

Have evangelicals missed the point? That’s certainly how I
assessed the situation as I walked into Borders bookstore recently. I’d even been kicking around ideas for a cultural history of
evangelicalism called Too Much Church? How Evangelicals Set Out to Reach a
Culture But Wound Up Creating One Instead. I’d done my time in church, in
Bible college, on the mission field, in Christian publishing, in seminary, and
as an employee of two large para-church organizations. During that time, I had
rubbed shoulders with Mennonites, Pentecostals, Anglicans, Baptists,
“Vineyardians,” charismatic Catholics, and evangelicals who were leery of
declaring any denominational affiliation. I had also spent a few years
purposely living outside the bounds of evangelicalism, sick to death of
“evidence that demanded a verdict,” three-chord choruses, and the Four
Spiritual Laws. Like many people, I had simply had too much church. So I felt
reasonably qualified to offer a critical assessment of this movement that had
defined and consumed so much of my life.

My basic thesis for Too Much Church is that in their
efforts to reach the wider culture, evangelicals have been unwittingly co-opted
by that culture. The result is, rather than penetrating and countering the
culture, they have formed our own shadow version of the wider culture, complete
with its own radio and television stations, entertainment industry,
celebrities, and cults of personality. The ironic thing is, despite this
tremendous outpouring of Christian media, evangelicals have been largely
ineffective when it comes winning the wider culture over to their message.

I believe the main reason for this is that most people think
evangelicals have sold out. In short, they have failed to address the defining
characteristic of our culture today—consumerism. Rather than counter this
self-centered, profit-driven philosophy, evangelicals have embraced it
wholesale, turning it into the central tool by which they disseminate the
gospel. No matter what spiritual, moral or emotional problem people may have,
the solution always seems to be “more church.” Read this book. Listen to this
speaker. Pray this prayer. Watch this show. Go to this church (God’s really
moving there.) Seven steps to success. Ten steps to happiness. For men, for
women, for children, for couples, for seniors. Consume, my brother/sister, and
thou shalt be healed. Like any good multi-level marketing organization,
evangelicals have made sure that the solution to any problem points back to the
products they are selling.

Unfortunately, this drive to consume Christian content has
created a sense of cynicism amongst Christians and non-Christians alike, who
have come to see the evangelical marketing machine as just another push for
brand superiority in the marketplace of ideas.[1]
People who are truly seeking a mystical encounter with the Almighty are turned
off of this movement, because so much of it reeks of cheap hucksterism, pablum
that has been watered down for the masses. As a good friend of mine says,
evangelicalism is like the McDonald’s of religion, all fat, sugar, and salt but
only a sprinkling of substance.

The solution to this situation, in my opinion, is not more
church but less. Just like a gourmet restaurant, evangelicals should focus on
stimulating and satisfying people’s appetite for God on all levels, not just
making sure they go away feeling stuffed. Like a good host, we need to make the
appropriate introductions and then get out of the way rather than dominate the
conversation and make people dependent on us for their next quick fix.

Back to Borders: With such semi-heretical thoughts swirling
in my head, imagine my surprise when I came across Adventures In Missing the
Point just sitting there on the shelf. As soon as I read the subtitle, I
quickly found a chair and made myself comfortable. I knew that I had found two
new soul mates in Campolo and McLaren when I read the following words:

“We pastors and preachers listen to our own sermons, see the
frantic pace of programs and meetings we’ve created, and shivers run up our
spines: are we somehow missing the point?

“Are our churches and broadcasts and books and organizations
merely creating religious consumers of religious products and programs? Are we
creating a self-isolating, self-serving, self-perpetuating, self-centered
subculture instead of a world-penetrating (like salt and light), world-serving
(focused on ‘the least and the lost,’ those Jesus came to seek and save),
world-transforming (like yeast in bread), God-centered (sharing God’s love for
the whole world) counterculture? If so, even if we proudly carry the name evangelical
(which means, ‘having to do with the gospel’), we’re not behaving as
friends to the gospel we seek to live and proclaim. This book is our attempt,
flawed and faltering to be sure, to get us thinking about the frightening
possibility of unintentional betrayal of the gospel by those entrusted with
it.”

Wow. So I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Ironic that
the authors had to create yet another evangelical artifact to get their point
across, but point well taken all the same.[2]

I was particularly intrigued by the way the book was
structured. It is divided into three sections: God, World, and Soul. Under each
heading, the authors tackle various areas where they feel evangelicals have
missed the point, including salvation, evangelism, social action, sin, worship,
doubt, and being postmodern, among others. McLaren and Campolo take turns
writing chapters and then having the other author respond. It is a true
dialogue between two very different and capable thinkers. Campolo is the old
warhorse, having spent the greater part of his career pushing evangelicals’
buttons. McLaren, even though he had written several books previous to this
one, was still somewhat of a new kid on the block to me. So I was eager to
taste this new flavor that was creating so much buzz. I only hoped the body of
the book lived up to the prophetic impulse of its introduction.

While I can’t exactly call Adventures In Missing the
Point a “must-read,” it certainly serves as a useful point of departure
when it comes to questions about evangelical culture and the relationship
between evangelicals and the culture at large. Standout chapters include
Campolo’s take on homosexuality and social action and McLaren’s discourses on
culture and leadership. Throughout the book, the authors challenge all sorts of
evangelical conventions while rarely resorting to a finger-pointing posture.
(Surprising considering the indictment suggested by the book’s title.) That
doesn’t mean the authors’ opinions are not stated strongly at times,
particularly by Campolo. Actually, of the two writers, I was surprised to see
Campolo come off as the conservative, seeing as he is commonly considered quite
liberal according to evangelical standards. But whenever he felt McLaren might
be conceding too much ground in the name of postmodern dialogue, Campolo was
quick to jump in and affirm the “true evangelical faith.” That said, I think
the average pew-warmer will be challenged if not incensed at much of what
Campolo says in this book, if they bother to pick it up at all that is.

As for McLaren, while I appreciated many of his insights,
the way he communicated them was a bit too polished and self-consciously
post-modern for my liking. He also seems to have an affinity for labels, such
as “emerging culture” and “emerging church,” and he tends to use them too
often. While he denies being the spokesperson for the emerging church—whatever
that is—he never refrains from speaking on its behalf. After reading a
carefully crafted chapter by McLaren, it was always refreshing to see Campolo
swoop in with some “from the hip” comments that revealed how even McLaren could
miss the point on occasion. I think I would appreciate McLaren a whole lot more
if he would stop trying to be so conciliatory and point the finger a little
more. His presentation was far too affected, like someone who had learned how
to be postmodern from reading a book and was now trying to “pass for normal”
amongst those for whom postmodern thinking comes as natural as breathing.

No book can be all things to all people. However, seeing as
this book aimed to cast its net wide rather than deep, some topics I would have
liked to see included are consumerism, the arts, politics, war, abortion, and
the creation vs. evolution debate—all areas where I feel evangelicals are
missing the point badly. Even so, the fact that this book exists at all is a
major service to the church, because it forces us to consider seldom asked
questions about what a healthy Christian culture looks like and how that
culture should relate to the culture at large.

So, after reading this critique of evangelicalism, do I
still feel the need to write one of my own? Definitely. But if Too Much
Church? ever does see the light of day, it will only have been made
richer—and more diplomatic—through my reading of McLaren and Campolo’s work.

[2] The conundrum of critiquing
consumerism by asking people to “Buy my book!” is one of the main reasons I
have been hesitant to embark on such a project. Thus, Clarion serves as
the ideal venue to air my thoughts, seeing as I don’t make a dime from this
effort.