Smuggling Jesus back into the Church by Andrew Fellows 

'Points to some weaknesses in the church - but does not prove that Jesus is outside the door'
 

Smuggling Jesus back into the Church - How the Church became worldly and what to do about it
By Andrew Fellows
IVP
ISBN: 978-1-78974-343-2
Reviewer: Pieter Lalleman

 
I inevitably begin reading books with a title like the present one with a huge dose of scepticism. Is ‘the Church’ really worldly? Who decided so? Is Jesus really outside the Church at the moment, so that we would need to smuggle Him back in? I accepted this book for review mainly because of my confidence in IVP as the publisher.

The first two chapters are introductory. Fellows explains what he means by worldly without saying too much. ‘We should have Jesus at the centre.’ ‘The church should not blend in with its context.’ No objections. On pages 34-35 Fellows identifies four major ideas of our secular age: egoism, naturalism, hedonism and politicism. To each of these he then dedicates a chapter, chapters 3–6. The justification for identifying these very four is almost non-existent.

Chapter 3 tackles egoism, described as the tendency to make church, its activities and its celebrity pastors more important than Jesus. Instead of becoming like Jesus, we strive to become better versions of ourselves, which Fellows calls ‘the emotional prosperity gospel’. As a remedy he points to who Jesus truly is. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss naturalism and hedonism, respectively.

Chapter 6 makes clear that by politicism Fellows means social engagement. Here he lumps together issues such as climate change, gender and black lives matter. This chapter gives the impression that he is projecting the highly polarised American situation onto the UK and the rest of Europe. I do agree that our primary identity is in Christ, but does that mean that believers have to be neutral in politics? Is there really no clear biblical mandate when it comes to issues such as climate change and poverty? This is the weakest chapter of the book.

The final chapter argues that the church today needs both revival and reformation. Here Fellows emphasises the importance of the Bible, the cross and the confessions. This generalising chapter almost stands apart from the rest of the book.

I would have liked to read more about naturalism, that is the inability to see beyond what is visible to all, the lack of second-order experiences. I am surely not the only person affected by it. Fellows’ diagnosis here is good but his remedy could have been deeper, for example if he had made use of the insights of psychology.

In sum: Fellows points to some weaknesses in the church but does not prove that Jesus is outside the door. The chapter on politics is unhelpful.

 

The Revd Dr Pieter J. Lalleman is the pastor of Knaphill Baptist Church, Surrey