Books like this are helpful as they encourage sincere Christians to reflect on their own position on these issues by a more thorough examination of Scripture. This book goes against the grain of traditional church thinking and practice. E-mail questions or comments for furthur discussion to book was worth reading as it challenged me to think 'outside the box.' Not enough books do this as people tend now to mirror each others thoughts in an attempt to appeal to the masses. I'm not one to state my case and then write off everyone else as crazy. I am more than happey to discuss this with anyone, whether that be a new Christian or a 'qualified' Bible expert. However, some things in scripture ARE plainly stated and when a system or way of doing things steals God's authority and gives it to men, when our resources are used to pay salaries and maintain facilities instead of feeding the hungry and taking the gospel to the lost, and when that system harms people and misrepresents scripture, then something has got to change.

I also understand that the way we as Christians operate is in fact influenced by our culture and that there is nothing wrong with that to a certain degree. I will be the first to acknowledge that the Bible doesn NOT give a specific set of instructions are draw out one way to 'do church'. It either lines up with scripture or it doesn't. It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with what is in the book. Others have a problem with him stating a case for house churches as the only way to do things. This is simply not the case as over 1/3 of the total page space is dedicated to listing sources and evidence for his arguments. Someone in one of the comments had the audacity to suggest that the author does not provide good sources for his history. It seems that those who are against this book are either unwilling to admit that there are serious problems with 'doing church' or they have never read the Bible objectively without the 'church goggles' that have been given to them by their pastors and/ or evengelists or other self proclaimed spiritual gurus. These type of comments only enforce one of the main points of this book - that we now rely on prestige, positions, and qualifications more than we do on the Holy Ghost. To those I would ask if they demand the same 'qualifications' when reading the writings of the apostle Paul or the disciples.

Some criticize him for not being and expert in Bible theology or church history and is therefore not qualified to make such arguments. For those that say the author is good at pointing out the problems but offers no solutions, I would like to point out that the book has a sequal called 'Re-imaginig Church' that does offer more detail on how to fix the problem.

I can see by the comments that people are pretty divided on this book.

Pagan christianity