Status
Available
Collection
Pages
256
Publication
Tyndale Momentum (2020), 256 pages
Description
What is the way forward for the church? Tragically, in recent years, Christians have gotten used to revelations of abuses of many kinds in our most respected churches-from Willow Creek to Harvest, from Southern Baptist pastors to Sovereign Grace churches. Respected author and theologian Scot McKnight and former Willow Creek member Laura Barringer wrote this book to paint a pathway forward for the church. We need a better way. The sad truth is that churches of all shapes and sizes are susceptible to abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse. Abuses occur most frequently when Christians neglect to create a culture that resists abuse and promotes healing, safety, and spiritual growth. How do we keep these devastating events from repeating themselves? We need a map to get us from where we are today to where we ought to be as the body of Christ. That map is in a mysterious and beautiful little Hebrew word in Scripture that we translate "good," the word tov. In this book, McKnight and Barringer explore the concept of tov-unpacking its richness and how it can help Christians and churches rise up to fulfill their true calling as imitators of Jesus.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member ChristinasBookshelf
I resisted buying this book for quite a while because it was written by someone who was involved with a megachurch. I don't trust megachurches at all. I finally relented when someone I trust recommended this book.
This book tells how to spot a toxic church culture and how to spot a good church
Toxic church culture will do some or all of these when evil things are done by those in power: discredit the critics, demonize the critics, spin the story, gaslight the critics, make the perpetrator the victim, silence the truth, suppress the truth, and/or issue a fake apology. "Toxic, flesh-driven cultures breed a lust for power, success, celebrity, control through fear, an emphasis on authority, and demands for loyalty."
A goodness culture will actively create a safe environment by nurturing empathy (resisting narcissism), nurturing grace (resisting fear culture), putting people first (resisting institution creep where the institution is more important than the people in the institution), telling the truth (resisting false narratives & observing Yom Kippur -- group repentance & confession of sins), nurturing justice (resisting loyalty culture), nurturing service (resisting celebrity culture), nurturing Christlikeness (resisting leader/CEO culture where a pastor acts like a businessman.)
I very recently read Charity Detox by Robert Lupton. He encourages churches/non-profits to think like a corporation in judging the effectiveness of their charitable efforts. I'm trying to figure out how to merge these two ideas since Tov is against a business model. I think that measuring the results of a church shouldn't focus on raw numbers. Definitely not on the number of parishioners, the quantity of financial support, and the money spent on programs. I think that it should be human-oriented. You need a list of parishioners or people that the charity had contact with over the course of time. You sit and ponder if each person is in a better position overall now than at previous points in time. If you need to have numbers, you rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 with 5 being no change. If someone is in a worse place in life or unchanged, the organization might have failed that person. If your average and median are less than 5 (if a 1 is bad), your organization is probably failing. But the evaluation needs to be person-centric. I think that these 2 books can be compatible with each other.
I believe that this book can be applied to churches, non-profits, and businesses. Businesses can be personality cults just as much as churches can. (I'm thinking of Apple which is failing post-Steve-Jobs and Microsoft which protects Bill Gates from the fallout of his affairs with employees.) Businesses need to nurture empathy, nurture grace instead of fear, tell the truth, put people first, nurture justice, nurture service, and resist authoritarianism/rule-following. So very many companies need to put people first and profits much lower in priority.
In my personal experience with multiple toxic churches and parachurch organizations, the red flags of toxic culture have been flying loud and proud. For 20 years, I was in a denomination that has made toxic culture its modus operandi, and everything in this book rings so very true. Every sign of a toxic culture was there and none of the signs of a good culture were there.
This book is definitely worth 5 stars. I highly recommend it to everyone, especially anyone who is a member of a church, and even more especially to anyone in a leadership position in a church. If you aren't a Christian, you will probably be annoyed with all of the many references to the Bible, God, Jesus, and examples from churches, but creating a culture of goodness applies to every group of people that wants to prevent their organization from being abusive.
This book tells how to spot a toxic church culture and how to spot a good church
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culture as well as how to create a toxic church culture and how to create a good church culture that won't allow toxicity to grow. The concept applies to all organizations, whether or not they are churches.Toxic church culture will do some or all of these when evil things are done by those in power: discredit the critics, demonize the critics, spin the story, gaslight the critics, make the perpetrator the victim, silence the truth, suppress the truth, and/or issue a fake apology. "Toxic, flesh-driven cultures breed a lust for power, success, celebrity, control through fear, an emphasis on authority, and demands for loyalty."
A goodness culture will actively create a safe environment by nurturing empathy (resisting narcissism), nurturing grace (resisting fear culture), putting people first (resisting institution creep where the institution is more important than the people in the institution), telling the truth (resisting false narratives & observing Yom Kippur -- group repentance & confession of sins), nurturing justice (resisting loyalty culture), nurturing service (resisting celebrity culture), nurturing Christlikeness (resisting leader/CEO culture where a pastor acts like a businessman.)
I very recently read Charity Detox by Robert Lupton. He encourages churches/non-profits to think like a corporation in judging the effectiveness of their charitable efforts. I'm trying to figure out how to merge these two ideas since Tov is against a business model. I think that measuring the results of a church shouldn't focus on raw numbers. Definitely not on the number of parishioners, the quantity of financial support, and the money spent on programs. I think that it should be human-oriented. You need a list of parishioners or people that the charity had contact with over the course of time. You sit and ponder if each person is in a better position overall now than at previous points in time. If you need to have numbers, you rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 with 5 being no change. If someone is in a worse place in life or unchanged, the organization might have failed that person. If your average and median are less than 5 (if a 1 is bad), your organization is probably failing. But the evaluation needs to be person-centric. I think that these 2 books can be compatible with each other.
I believe that this book can be applied to churches, non-profits, and businesses. Businesses can be personality cults just as much as churches can. (I'm thinking of Apple which is failing post-Steve-Jobs and Microsoft which protects Bill Gates from the fallout of his affairs with employees.) Businesses need to nurture empathy, nurture grace instead of fear, tell the truth, put people first, nurture justice, nurture service, and resist authoritarianism/rule-following. So very many companies need to put people first and profits much lower in priority.
In my personal experience with multiple toxic churches and parachurch organizations, the red flags of toxic culture have been flying loud and proud. For 20 years, I was in a denomination that has made toxic culture its modus operandi, and everything in this book rings so very true. Every sign of a toxic culture was there and none of the signs of a good culture were there.
This book is definitely worth 5 stars. I highly recommend it to everyone, especially anyone who is a member of a church, and even more especially to anyone in a leadership position in a church. If you aren't a Christian, you will probably be annoyed with all of the many references to the Bible, God, Jesus, and examples from churches, but creating a culture of goodness applies to every group of people that wants to prevent their organization from being abusive.
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