Dangerous Church - A Book Review

When offered a chance to read John Bishop's book Dangerous Church, I almost balked. I've read and been disturbed by Platt's Radical and Radical Together. I say disturbed because I'm not sure Platt has the right answers. To be fair, he often says he's not really sure he does either. But these other titles got me thinking and disturbed me. So with a book covered in Caution tape and the title Dangerous Church I felt we might head down that road once more.

Instead, Bishop has not shaken anything in me. The big idea is simply that we must do everything in our power to reach our world with the gospel. OK. How? By risking everything and always remembering God so we can reach people everywhere! And that was my take away. Bishop gives a great "rah rah" speech in nearly 200 pages of the importance of reaching people with the gospel. But his book is almost the polar opposite of Platt in that he focuses more on reaching the people near your church or in your city by making you church larger and going multi-site so you can preserve your church's DNA.

In fact, one whole chapter lauds the idea of multi-site churches. It might have been the point I just turned off completely. I am now and have always been against the multi-site ideology. In my own opinion it calls for worship of a pastor or church or church's DNA over a true worship of Jesus. Again, my opinion is that if an area of your community is unreached plant a church, install biblical, sound leaders and allow God to build what he wills. Requiring your new church plant to keep your name and play the video of your message denies that anyone else can reach these people other than you and robs the Spirit of it's work in the changing of hearts.

Ultimately, Bishop's book is a decent read but I wouldn't have called it Dangerous. Instead he's calling for a focus or refocus on the most important job a church has...reaching people with the gospel.