Your Church is Too Safe, by- Mark Buchanan

Full disclosure: I'm completely in the tank for Mark Buchanan.  I think he's an incredible writer, a great pastor, and his books have been incredibly helpful to me.  Therefore, when I had the opportunity to read and review his latest book, Your Church is Too Safe, I jumped at the chance.  The title is clearly a play on his former book Your God is Too Safe, which is a book about venturing into the depths of our relationship with God through the practice of some of the classic spiritual disciplines.  Great book which I highly recommend.

His latest book is directed more to the pastor or church leader, rather than the everyday guy or girl.  That said, I'm not sure that it wouldn't be accessible to just about anyone.  While he's addressing the church as a broad organization, much of the most poignant and challenging material in the book is just as applicable to anyone who seeks to authentically follow Jesus.

First: the good.  Buchanan is an incredible teacher/storyteller, and his illustrations and stories are woven into his points so seamlessly and naturally that reading it never feels like an effort.  From a content standpoint, he's extremely effective at helping us to recognize where we tend to settle for "safe instead of dangerous, nice instead of holy, cautious instead of bold, [and] self-absorbed instead of counting everything loss in order to be found in Christ."  Buchanan is at his best when he challenges the most sensitive areas of our discipleship, at points challenging us to even question whether we are disciples at all.  He pushes us to not just believe, but to act like Jesus: in the way we spend, the way we give, the way we love, the way we serve, the way we engage the community around us (both inside and outside the church), the way we evangelize--literally, just about every aspect of what it means to be the church.  He pushes all the right buttons and challenges us to look deep inside of ourselves, and at the heart of our churches.

That said (you knew it was coming!), I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be.  When I opened my Kindle copy of the book, there was a review from some lady named Nancy Beach.  I have no idea who she is, and I've never heard of the book that she's credited with writing.  I'm sure she's a wonderful woman, and I think it's quite likely that she even read the book before she wrote her review of it.  She says this: "Don't read this book without preparing to be disturbed in all the right ways... Mark Buchanan calls us out of our safe zones of comfort to a vision that is transformational--and somewhat terrifying.  It's the only kind of church that can change the world."  That was my introduction to this book.  So, maybe my expectations were set a bit too high.  It's a good book.  It challenges us, and OK, at times maybe even disturbs us, in some good ways.  However, I wouldn't say that it calls us to a terrifyingly transformational vision.  And in all fairness, Buchanan himself might not say that it does--I didn't take the time to call him for comment.  It pushes the North American church in some areas in which we need to be pushed.  But generally, he does what a good pastor should do--he calls us back to what it means to act like Jesus.  For some churches, that may be terrifyingly transformational.  For most of us, it's just difficult.  Buchanan pushes on that part of us that longs to settle comfortably in this world, living by the values of this culture, enjoying our religion like we might enjoy a strong cup of coffee.  He pushes on us and reminds us that we're not made for this world.  That we aren't supposed to live like we belong here.  He reminds us that we're supposed to be different, and then he uses his incredible gifting as a story-teller to both re-tell us the Story itself, as well as telling little vignettes from his experiences along the way.

A classic example: if you search for reviews on this book, the vast majority of them will cite the chapter that Buchanan opens by telling the story of a lesbian couple who attend his church.  it makes for good "shock and awe" in the book review, but it's really not that kind of a story.  He simply talks about the church learning to truly love and engage these two wonderful women with the love of Jesus, while not sacrificing the truth of the Word along the way.  Exactly right.  I took no exception to the way that he unpacked his church's reaction to the situation, and I believe that by and large, his church acted like hands and feet of Jesus, as we all are intended to be as the church.  But that was just it: it didn't seem that profound.  Are there lots of churches that wouldn't have responded with such a healthy balance of grace and truth?  I'm sure.  And maybe I'm crazy to think that our church would have--but I truly believe we would.  They responded the right way.  I would hope that we would have too.  Good point, well said, but nothing terrifyingly transformational there.

Your Church is Too Safe is a good, helpful book.  It stands in a line with a good number of books that have come out in the last few years that challenge the often apathetic, consumeristic, self-focused North American church to stop being apathetic, consumeristic and self-focused.  And don't get me wrong--it's a message that's desperately needed!  And Buchanan does it quite well: in my opinion not quite as effectively as David Platt's Radical, but more effectively than Kyle Idleman's Not a Fan.  I won't take the time to list the dozens of other books in this sub-genre or to rank them, but trust me, they're out there, and if you search hard enough, I'm sure someone already has.  Maybe I'm crazy to think that pastors and leaders and churches should already know this stuff.  Maybe it's more profound that I give it credit for.  If so, then please--run out and get a copy immediately, buy one for everyone on your church leadership team, and don't sleep until all of you have read it all the way through at least three times.

But if not, it's still a good and necessary kick in the pants.  And if we're going to be honest, we all really need one of those now and then.