- Book Review 6 – David E. Fitch, The Great Giveaway

Author: David Fitch (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is pastor of Life on the Vine Christian Community of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Long Grove, Illinois, and is adjunct professor of ministry, theology, and ethics at Northern Seminary.

Theme: “The Evangelicalism has “given away” being the church in North America” (P. 13)

Summary: This book talks about how the evangelical church today has lost its identity and its function to the world (e.g. American business, parachurch organizations, psychotherapy and etc…). The church has been influence (and is still) by the values of modernity and stop being the church that was originally meant to be. It can not be done by stripping away the modernity aspect since it is very fundamental to the church but the church has to deconstruct and rethink on many methodological aspect of being a church.

Reflection: The book addresses many issues such as: seeker service in post-modern world, the need of renewal in worship, business model of leadership in the church, and etc… These issues are nothing new but part of the ongoing discussion within evangelicalism and emerging church movement. Yet the great thing about this book is that the authenticity of the author and his heart is transmitted through is writing. He is not criticizing the evangelical church from an “outside” view point but from the inside view point. The authors really spoke to me since I totally felt his struggle since that is my current struggle as someone planting a church. He writes: “Some things remained important to me about evangelicalism, and yet some things remained seriously problematic about its commitments to modernity” (P. 15). I have mentioned in a couple of reflection and book reviews that I believed in renewing the current church and not dismissing them and replacing them with a new form. Yes, there are something problematic with the church today but I believe we are called to work within our situation and strive to change what is wrong and continue the good work. The churches throughout the history have been and are corrupted in many aspects; yet God has chosen the church as his vehicle of spreading his message and good news. We must work within the situation where God has put us. If the church can be compared to a family, then now matter how problematic the family become we need work with it and not look for a different family.
Also this book helped me in developing my ideas and visions regarding the church plating (which is my case study) since it sheds great lights on the issue of church planting, the worship service and preaching. The author writes: “Church planting is the ultimate form of postmodern evangelism” (P. 68) stating that salvation is not passing out the right information and getting the right answer but it is a way of living. This helps me to focus the new church even more in the aspects of community, a community that lives out the salvation instead of just trying to get it…