Religion and Theology

Dianna Butler Basss book, Christianity for the Rest of Us takes the opportunity to address some important trends in Christianity, while attempting to tackle a major question facing the Christian religion right now. In her work, she not only uses numbers from a study to offer an analysis of the religions growth at large she also debunks what would seem to be a prevailing myth. She addresses whether or not the neighborhood church is still a relevant idea, as common thought would suggest that it had gone away over the last ten to fifteen years. As the author of seven books on the topic and a Ph.D. holder from Duke Universitys School of Divinity, Bass a special authority on the subject. She uses her skill for research and her unique ability to track wide ranging trends to paint a telling picture of what Christianity has become. Her work succeeds because she is able to see that although Christianity may be changing in nature, it is not going away. In fact, she argues, it is actually becoming stronger in its new, adaptive role, as the new neighborhood church is reaching out to more people in communities across the United States.

Understanding the book itself requires one to understand the research that preceded the book. At her core, Bass is a researcher that loves to tackle large questions and seemingly unanswered questions. Through her history as an author, she has approached common knowledge that is somewhat unproven to see if she could come up with some sort of convincing answer on the subject. In this particular study, the idea was to look at the core churches that make up the Christian power base in the United States. Where the work truly succeeds is in the arrangement of the study. Grading the reach and effectiveness of churches in a modern sense might seem like a difficult task, and few have been able to do it well because of the problem of standardization. How do you grade a churchs impact Should it be done using numbers alone, to figure out how many members come into various churches each work Should it be done using some sort of combined criteria, taking into account a number of different factors Bass uses a set of criteria that is inventive enough to push the study forward.  She grades the churches using things like hospitality, discernment, healing, testimony, diversity, worship, justice, contemplation, and even healing. These are all relevant factors in understanding exactly how a church operates, and the inclusion of these items makes her study somewhat contemplative in its own right. She covers all bases and takes a look at a wide range of different churches to try and come up with a picture of what is really happening. While some authors are content to go with the flow and write books in line with the common thought of the day, Basss book is one that branches out and touches on key questions that have yet to be discovered appropriately. In this way, she adds a lot of value for readers of all kinds.

One of the unique things about this book is that Bass is willing to study not only the structure of the new churches, but also how the congregations interaction in comparison to older churches. What she found was that todays churches are changing to become more participative and less authoritative. Instead of the old church, where the hierarchy was clearly defined and people stay within their defined roles, the new church has fewer of these roles. This is not to say that everyone is equal, but people are more on the same playing field. She is correct in arguing that todays church is a place with more involvement, which helps to make it a more community oriented church. In her book, she writes, I observed congregations that had moved away from being hierarchical, top-down communities of authority toward more participatory forms of church, thus flattening their congregations. Instead of reasserting the ministerial or doctrinal voice of authority, they had opened their congregations to more voices, bringing a multiplicity of perspectives to bear on community life (Bass, 234). Because her study attempted to detect a new sense of community in the modern church, this is an important finding. Not only has the modern church reached out into communities to forge new relationships with a wide range of different people it has also in itself become a community, which is something that many individuals felt was lacking in todays large, evangelistic churches.

One of the most interesting portions of the book, and another place where Bass steps out from under the company line, is with her take on what all of these things mean. She does not stop at simply uncovering the data, as that would be one step short of her purpose. She goes on to state what the changing dynamic of the church indicates for the future of the Church in America, and what it means individually to Christians, as well. According to Bass, the heart of the movement is all about the ability to change and the ability to transform. The fact that churches are able to mold themselves into something new and useable is one of their primary strengths, according to Bass. This is a highly interesting take that flies in the face of what some thinkers have proposed. There have been some differing viewpoints abounding that call this expansion in the church a deviation from its stated purpose. By growing larger, these pundits say, the church is losing its sense of community and its ability to really reach people on an individual level. In this, one can see one of the key arguments in todays religious circles. Is it better to be bigger and reach a greater number of people or is it better to be smaller and have a more intimate relationship with those people that the church does reach Though many have offered opinions on this matter, few have done it as well as Bass does in this book. She makes convincing arguments about the churchs new ability and cautions against stopping that sort of transformation. She argues that the world is a changing place and that if the church wants to survive, it needs to be willing to change, as well. This might seem like a scary notion at first thought, and many religious thinkers have rightfully been afraid of this type of church. Her arguments paint a picture of the churchs dire need to keep up, though. Additionally, she opines about the personal responsibility of the church and how todays churches are more in line with its original goals. Churches in the past have been places where people have been spoon-fed, according to Bass. She rightly argues that the new church is one that is more of a resource to communities. Across denominational lines, churches are growing to become the community center where people go to tap in and get their own nourishment. Though this is not as easy, it is something that can be positive for those people who are smart enough to use it, at least according to Bass in this work.

This book provides value to a host of readers, for a host of reasons. For one, it is valuable for its role in providing more data on the changing church. In a pure research-related sense, Bass has added something to the knowledge base that was not there before. Additionally, this work is a valuable one because it can be digested on a number of levels. For casual followers of theology who would like to dig into the ideas of a changing church, this work allows for that. For those readers who are looking to get more out of this book and open up their own discussion on the matter, this book also allows for that. This ability to provide somewhat far-reaching truths is not exclusive to Bass, but it is relatively uncommon among some of todays theological writers. In exploring some difficult to answer questions and taking on the common consciousness, Bass has provided a meaningful read that is worth the time it takes to finish the book.

Overall, Bass touches on many themes and makes many excellent points. A critical review of her book would offer no grade, but instead say that the author achieved her directive and fulfilled the goals she set out to fulfill. With a book of this nature, which features such a wide-ranging audience, many will take from it what they want to, and that is the beauty of this work. It is not quite an exhaustive work on the current condition of the Christian Church, but it is comprehensive enough to serve as a guide of sorts for people to use as they study it further. It is also a book that brings both answers and more questions, which is an excellent thing for the overall discussion of Christianity at this point in time. In short, it is a book worth reading by an author that long ago established the credibility to venture into such heady waters and take on questions so seemingly unapproachable.