Every once in a while I come across a book that diverges from theology, youth ministry, introspection, apologetics, or even fiction that interests me. Churched is one of those books. It describes a young man (author Matthew Paul Turner) growing up in a hyper-conservative southern baptist church. Despite all odds of being embittered against and rejecting the legalistic tendencies of his upbringing, Turner is able to see the beauty of the Gospel and continue in his faith and love for the Lord. This interested me immediately.
What I liked: Turner is a great story-teller. In each of his experiences, the reader can easily imagine all the little details he is describing to a "t." Also, this book jumps deeply into many of the ridiculous teachings that can come from a place of pride, envy, judging others, etc. Some of the examples from his real life are so preposterous they come across as simply unbelievable... in a good way. Turner calls things like they are. This book truly reveals the deception that lies in the hearts of others. It shows the dark side of the church. It angered me at times.
What I Didn't Like: First of all, I have this as an audiobook from christianaudio.com, as part of their reviewers program. Turner's voice wears on the listener. His tone is one of almost mocking the characters in his story as he tells them.
For all of the dark stories the author tells, he rarely mentions his journey with the Lord. He simply tells 15 chapters worth of stories about how crazy and pretty much ungodly his southern baptist church was growing up. Then suddenly in the last chapter he tells a story of his current church, a couple things he believes, and how he still loves Jesus despite his past. This is great, don't get me wrong, but we aren't allowed into that transformation at all. We don't see the process. It makes all his stories lack direction, purpose, and meaning.
This book would have been awesome if he had half the stories from his childhood, focused on the things he had to wrestle with because of those stories and how he was able to grow in his faith and maintain his love for Christ and passion for the Gospel. That is a book worth reading. This one seems to digress into cheap shots against people of his past and a total bashing of all fundamentalism with very little pay-off in the end.
Personal Takeaways: I was challenged in how I interact with my students as I read this book. One of the positive things this book establishes is that the mind of an adolescent is very pliable. The very tone in which I teach things, my motivation behind every talk I give, and my (potential) lack of focus on the Gospel can easily embitter my students later on in life. I must be careful to teach only what Scripture teaches and model only who Christ is. Nothing more. Nothing less. My ministry at TreeHouse cannot fall into any traps of legalism or berating others. This is not the Good News.
Who's It For?: If you are looking to get into the mind of ultra-conservative, fundamentalist, southern baptist churches (I'm speaking in probably too broad of terms here), this book could give you some insight. It is a quick and easy read, mainly being full of stories. I'd say it's accessible to all, but ultimately panders into name-calling and mocking far too often and fails to establish the story of what God is doing and has done in the heart of the author.
Nice review. Random question: Did the author do the audio version? Or was it someone else?
ReplyDeletethe author narrated the audiobook. That's why I felt free to criticize the tone as being a little mocking.
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