A new Series… sort of…
So… I have a blog. It’s 300 posts dating back to… 2007? Ish? I figure it’s about time I had an idea to do something intentional with it. As part of my work requirements at my current job, I am supposed to be reading books, listening to podcasts, tracking main takeaways and interacting with the content. I figure, if I am going to go to all that work, I might as well get some content out of it. Thus, posts with the #BIHTR (Books I Had To Read) tag in the headline are a part of that ongoing series. Today will mark the first post in the series because the book and relevant discussion is fresh in my brain — I’ll start digging into my previous notes from the others I have already knocked off later.
#BIHTR 1 — A Church Called Tov
By Scott McKnight and Laura Barringer
This book starts off as one of the most necessary and important works on the state of Western Ecclesiology that I have read recently. A Church Called Tov has the bravery to look at something that few people within the church would — namely, the epidemic of sexual misconduct and abusive behavior among some of the more prominent and influential names within American Christianity — and examines the kind of cultural failings within an organization that allow said behavior, with a stated goal of instructing the reader how to build a church culture that is antagonistic to abusers and narcissists.
The book begins with a story of Laura Barringer and her husband being out and about when the Chicago Tribune decided to break the story about Bill Hybels, Willow Creek Community Church and the numerous allegations made against Hybels by several women connected to the church. Citing the overall size of the church and how members in an organization that size never really know what is going on behind the curtain, the Barringers made the completely understandable assumption that this must just be fluff because they hadn’t witnessed anything in Bill Hybels during the 20 or so years they were attending his church to suggest that there might be something untoward going on — until the paper started putting names to the allegations and the Barringers realized that, not only did they know the accusers… but that the accusers were women of good character who wouldn’t lie about such things. It helps, while reading the rest of the book, to remember that this instance is essentially the thesis statement for the rest of the book; while there are mentions made of Mark Driscoll, CJ Mahaney, Andy Savage and even the Catholic church, the focus of this book is very much on what happened at Willow Creek.
Too often when a pastor is accused of misconduct, the initial response includes denial, deflection, displays of bewilderment or anger, and demonization of the accuser.
Scott McKnight
Obviously, this is a problem that bears much discussion, especially amongst the church. Too many churches are too invested in protecting themselves or their images — over and above pursuit of truth and holiness. We saw this play out very painfully in the Catholic sex abuse scandal where the church continued to deny the severity of the issue and downplay the pain caused because of the refusal to “tarnish the reputation of the Church”; it was comparable to the idea that police need to be seen as the unerring voice of legal authority or you are an anarchist. Within A Church Called Tov, McKnight and Barringer do a fantastic job of doing a deep dive on the cultural forces that create the atmosphere that allow for the kind of shenanigans as existed not just in Bill Hybels’ abuse, but in the church’s coverup as well. The examination of narcissism, celebrity culture and fear-based wielding of power is far overdue, and one that most churches would do well to pay attention to.
Church culture matters. As we live in our culture and also into our culture, our culture begins to live in and into us. A good culture will shape us toward goodness; a toxic culture will shape us toward evil. Yes, we can resist and change the culture of a church, but resisting, at times, is like trying to slow down a hurricane.
A Church Called Tov — McKnight and Barringer
The second section of the book attempts to change focus from the problem to the authors’ prescribed solution. This seven step process states that churches with a “goodness culture” nurture Empathy, Grace, a People-first culture, Truth, Justice, Service and Christlikeness in a top-down approach: you need those seven characteristics displayed across your leadership team, and then those leaders need to bring forth those characteristics in the people being led by the church. It bears recognition that, if the biggest contributing factor to abuse and sexual misconduct in the church is narcissism and celebrity, the antidote would be humility and external, community-focus. However, it is here that my biggest issue takes place with the authors — it really seems like a good chunk of this book (specifically the last two chapters) appears to be the result of unprocessed pain, and leads to some wonky conclusions; specifically, there appears to be an underlying correlation between “celebrity” and “large”. Based on how McKnight and Barringer talk about the community within their own church as the shining example that all churches should aspire to, you would be forgiven for leaving “A Church Called Tov” with a belief that churches are not supposed to be concerned about growth and evangelism because they are only supposed to achieve a certain size and then stop. From personal experience, I know that celebrity culture and abuse know no size restrictions — some of the worst spiritual abuse happens in the smallest of churches.
I do like A Church Called Tov. It is a necessary call to arms against a beast that is both far too prevalent and far too protected within the church. However, harkening back to the “unprocessed pain” point, I find that the book is very narrow in its approach. This may be due to Willow Creek being the thesis statement of the book, but I have seen narcissism and abuse take many forms that have little to do with sex — even so, most studies on the subject tell us that sexual assaults have little to do with sex… it’s about the feeling of power the attacker gets from the attack. The big danger, for me, is that keeping as narrow a focus on sexual abuse is going to let too many abusers and narcissists “off the hook”. It’s a recommended read, but I would definitely suggest that you do so with an eye towards a much broader application than the one that the authors’ themselves make.
A Church Called Tov — McKnight and Barringer
4/5
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The Beat Down 