Book Review : Jim and Casper Go To Church

I'm not much of a reader, but I was given a copy of Jim and Casper Go To Church last week from the BCMD. I was fascinated at it's premise. Jim is a Christian and Casper is an atheist. They visit most of the megachurches in the US including Willow Creek, Saddleback, Joel Osteen's, and many more. His point was not to convert Casper, but to get a glimpse of what an outsider of the church views the church like. Without a doubt, it was an interesting book. I don't agree with all of Casper's views, nor the author's, but it did make me think.

One of the things you must understand is Casper is not what we should base our methods and purposes of the church on. Jesus alone is. Casper has some great points, but he also has points that I disagree with. He is criticizing some of the church based on what he views the church should be like. This is a non-Biblical perspective. It's really based on his assumptions and feelings of what the church should be. He sees little in worship, rather he sees deeds as of utmost importance. The thing he complains about most is the lack of action by churches with the homeless and sick. Those are noble and important to the church, but those weren't the only mandates for the church.

He complains about worship being a show. In some cases, I would almost agree. However, he is viewing it as a show, not connection with God. Is it possible that what the world views as a show, we can use to connect with God? Rock shows are meant to entertain and rally people to a cause in some cases. Why can't Christian "shows" have the same purpose? I lead a worship band to excite students about the words, not the music. The music is part of the whole package, but it is a tool to communicate a message. Hopefully worship will get deeper rather than shallower. Worship lyrics have been lacking recently.

The irony of Casper is that as much as he complains about the churches lack of doing anything socially, he at one points admits that he himself is too lazy to do it himself. So he explains that the church should be taking social action while he doesn't worry about it? How does that work?

It's interesting that most churches haven't learned how to genuinely go out of their way to welcome new people. As Casper says, there are friendly people at Walmart too. A friendly hello isn't the end of connecting with new people.

Anyway, I did enjoy the read. I am concerned about some of what I am hearing the new emergent church proclaiming as what the church is about. Doctrine isn't a bad word y'all.