This book by Dever and Dunlop is a reminder for all people (especially theology students) to engage well with – and root themselves in – a healthy local church. Readers are encouraged to never think that they, or others, ‘do’ ministry while everyone else simply watches. Rather, full-time Christian workers facilitate the ministry which the entire church exercises.
The authors begin by correctly highlighting how churches can consist of communities that are not centred on the gospel, but rather on similar interests, jobs, attitudes, or situations in life. As a result, the church can lose its remarkableness (as communities can be characterised by these factors rather than the gospel), and its supernatural, heavenly character. Indeed, “too often community in our churches better testifies to our own prowess in niche marketing than to the supernatural at work.”
Once the supernatural nature of the church is established, Dever and Dunlop use their experience to offer biblical, practical help for issues such as dealing with sin and discontentment in the church. This book is helpful in rightly grounding its recommendations in early church examples evidenced in the New Testament. However, these examples are held perhaps too highly to an almost impossible (and therefore frustrating) standard, largely overlooking the early church’s own pitfalls.
Readers will be challenged to reconsider their church culture and to grow toward a fuller ideal of God’s desire for His community. This excellent book would end more tremendously with a reminder that God’s people – including the authors themselves – run the Christian race as imperfect saints, helping the weak and battling with sin. Change is sometimes slow and frustrating, and while we will grow, there is no ‘perfect church’ until God’s Kingdom is fulfilled in glory.
