Pagan Christianity‪?‬

I loved learning the fascinating history behind many church traditions we just take for granted. Two things I didn't like was that I found it too extreme in its conclusions and completely disregarded the Old Testament. First, sometimes the Bible is prescriptive (how things should be done) and sometimes it's descriptive (how things were done, but not necessarily how they should be done now). Also, as wonderful as the new testament church model was in a number of ways, it was massively plagued by heresies and divisions from the get go (just read Paul's letters to see the issues they dealt with). Also, movements do change overtime (for better and worse), but any growing organization I feel must keep the things that helped it grow and be effective, but also set up a appropriate infrastructure to support future growth (but not to protect gains and become reactionary). Fascinating read but it failed to address the weaknesses of the NT model we see in scripture and history and just took a "startup" as a one-size-fits-all ideal. Google, Facebook and Apple are all very innovative, but they no longer operate out of someone's garage run by a couple unpaid college dropouts (or as implied here... out of thousands of garages with thousands of unpaid college drop outs). They had to grow up, but maintain an culture of innovation and excellence. This should be the church handles growth in my mind (instead of becoming reactionary, entrenched and traditional).

This book has arrested me. I WILL have to do something with what I have just read. This book brought me back to scripture in a pure clear way and made me realize how personal God is with His Children.

Frank Viola and George Barna have done an excellent job producing a priceless resource about the church for every Christian willing to read with an open mind. I recommend this book to any Christian of any denomination. Packed with truth!