A Review of The Prodigal Church By Jared Wilson

“You fool, you can’t do it that way…”

Give criticism like that and not many people are going to respond. Likewise if you simply show people what they are doing wrong without giving them a better alternative, they’ll likely keep doing it the way they have always done it. To properly give criticism you need to do so as a friend. And you need to show them a better way.

To the attractional church, Jared Wilson is such a friend, in his book The Prodigal Church. Having come out of that mindset himself, Jared is well-positioned to offer his critiques as a friend. And there are plenty. Sometimes he is hard-hitting. He makes a compelling argument that the attractional system is broken. And then he proceeds to show the better way—through faithfully proclaiming the gospel.

That wouldn’t be well received if Wilson came at this from the position of an enemy. But because of his tone, I believe those who have bought into the attractional model will at least hear him out. When they do hear him out they will hear the heart of a pastor who bought into a system which broke him. And they’ll hear the heart of a pastor who has become gripped by the unchanging and cross-cultural gospel of Jesus. I pray that what they see is a vision of God so attractive that they consider unplugging the fog machine and reorient their churches around beholding God.

For those of us that began the book in agreement with the author, there is plenty to feast upon. For one, I believe Jared models how to talk through these issues. If you are a pastor attempting to slowly change the mindset of your attractional church, this book is a great model for tone as well as content.

I also found this book deeply encouraging. When your church loses folks to the sexy church down the street and people in your congregation are clamoring to compete it can be both tempting and discouraging. Reading this book was an encouragement to me to stay the course and to use faithfulness as the tool to measure success. It was also encouraging to realize that I’m not alone. I’m not just a lonely and crazy loon who believes that the gospel is sufficient. This was a powerful defense for what I believe to be true about the way we are to do church.

So, if you believe the attractional model is best I invite you to set down with a cup of coffee and enjoy this conversation. If you are already convinced that something akin to a gospel-centered way of doing church is the best way—then be encouraged. If you don’t really know what either mean, you’d do well to read through the book as well.

Marx’s Communist Manifesto changed the world (for the worst). I’m praying that Jared Wilson’s Gentle Manifesto Against the Status Quo will change our churches (for the better).

Pick up your copy today.