Along my journey, I am reading a constant stream of books on faith by various contemporary writers. This week, I’m reading The Shape of Faith to Come by Brad J. Waggoner, published in 2008 by B&H Publishing Group.
It’s very difficult to know what to think of this book. On the one hand, it offers valuable insights into the state of the American Christian churches. On the other hand, it’s not an unbiased look, and the preaching nature distracts and detracts from any positive message Waggoner has.
The book is couched in “scientific” survey. Waggoner says that he and his contemporaries interviewed 2,500 Protestants who attend church on a regular basis. I put “scientific” in quotes because nowhere in the book does it offer an in-depth explanation of the survey’s methods, just the questions asked without the raw data. Instead, it’s all just analysis, with no way of judging the facts on which the analysis is based.
There’s a lot that can be very insulting to a lot of Christians, beyond the omission of Catholic and Orthodox perspectives. Waggoner rates the respondents’ answers in terms of the “ideal” responses in all categories – including “Learning the Truth,” “Obeying God and Denying Self,” and “Sharing Christ.” Born-again evangelicals almost always come out on top in Waggoner’s view, which shouldn’t be surprising, as he is a Southern Baptist. He portrays Christians who don’t fulfill his criteria as lacking, as when he says, “When you consider the cultural context in which we reside, this is not a time for weak or average Christians or a time for weak or average churches” (21).
Nevertheless, there are some very valuable back-to-basics lessons that would behoove Christians across the board to remember. For example, Waggoner found that when asked whether they try to put God first in their lives, only 71 percent of Christians gave a positive response. That means that 29 percent did not even ascribe to a basic tenet of almost any faith.
Waggoner interprets such a lack of understanding of a basic tenet of faith in the realm of the Christian interpretation of redemption, stating, “As pastors and church leaders, we’ve all had concerns about church members who come forward during a public invitation, prayed the ‘sinner’s prayer,’ but then seem to display little evidence of Christ in their lives. Repentance isn’t merely apologizing to God for our sins and then continuing to live as if we control our own lives” (118).
In each of Waggoner’s seven “domains,” he gives important insights into the core values of what Christianity should be — worship, submission, and sharing. These are peppered with illustrative stories from Waggoner’s life, such as when a tornado spares his son and reminds him of the importance of continual praise.
But Waggoner’s combative, demeaning tone to “liberal” Christians and proponents of “DaVinci Code” theology – which he lumps together – severely detract from his message to the point where the book would be unreadable to anyone who is not already in Waggoner’s choir.
Waggoner himself points out that the second-highest reason church dropouts give for leaving (26 percent of them) is that “church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical.” By pointing the finger and laying blame across the Christian spectrum over doctrinal issues, Waggoner dismisses one of his own teachings, that of accountability to other Christians.
He points out that only 58 percent of Christians agreed that they “tend to accept the constructive criticism and correction of other Christians.” And Waggoner states that “accepting criticism is an essential part of being a learner” (65). By putting Christians who disagree with him on some levels in quotes, he’s able to sidestep his own teachings, and he himself seems judgmental and hypocritical.
This haughtiness makes it hard for this book to appeal to those it needs to most, those who are wavering in basic tenets – the 13 percent that Waggoner noticed completely dropping out of church in a 12-month period. By laying the blame for this on liberal indoctrination, Waggoner closes his mind to other possible solutions to fixing the dwindling church crisis in America. While the problem in lackadaisical faith he narrows in on are very real, circling the wagons only holds off attackers, but can lead to starvation.
