redefining christianity by bob dewaay

At any church, it's important that certain beliefs and practices are accepted as non-negotiables. Prayer, Biblical authority and communion certainly fit in that category. But over time, methods and preferences can easily slip into that same compartment in our minds. Even time-tested, fruitful processes and philosophies need to be questioned once in a while.

Which is where Bob DeWaay comes in. Redefining Christianity is a scathing attack on the Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren and by extension, any church that identifies itself with the Purpose Driven movement. Though I agree with some of his complaints, philosophically I don't know if I could have disagreed with him more.

Some of his accusations regarding Purpose Driven churches:

• they don't do discipleship
• they let unchurched people, not the Bible define their weekend services
• they misuse Scripture
• their teaching is more about man's wisdom than God's truth

There certainly are tendencies within the movement (though not necessarily in every Purpose Driven church) that cause concern, but there are just as many problems with a more traditional church model (lack of growth, few conversions, insensitivity to and disregard for the unchurched). The bottom line is, which approach is more Biblical and more fruitful? And which paradigm is better suited to deal with a quickly approaching post-Christian America?

I'm thankful to Pastor DeWaay. His book provided me with the opportunity to re-question many of my long held philosophies and practices. I found the book to be dismissive, poorly researched and the perfect addition to my normal diet of homogeneous ministry and leadership books.

"Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to observation and memory. It instigates to invention. It shocks us out of sheeplike passivity..."

--John Dewey