Deep Church – Book Review

Churches that have so much traditionalism and refuse to contextualize anything for the sake of the Gospel may have solid biblical doctrines and theologies, but are not reaching the culture around them. Churches that are so seeker friendly and numbers/business oriented may draw people in but fall short on spiritual depth and discipleship. Churches or gatherings that have a low view of the Bible and a high view of humanity may be able to draw people in and disciple them, but lack the roots in the Word and church history to disciple them correctly and lead them to the true Christ. In his book “Deep Church”, Jim Belcher outlines what he calls a third way. This third way of doing church differs from the traditionalist and mega churches of the past 50 years or so, where it’s all about structure, numbers, and programs, and also differs from the newer emerging or emergent churches, where almost everything is fluid and up for questioning, including major historical church doctrines. Belcher takes “the best” of both worlds, in a sense, puts his own spin on it, and comes up with a beautiful sounding way of doing church. I say “sounding” because I haven’t experienced it first hand, but like I said, sounds great. I love the way he holds firm to the foundational Christian doctrines of the reformers while teaching his people how these doctrines and principals effect not only their lives, but how they should be taking these beliefs out to their culture and effecting it!

Toward the beginning of the book he lists out several problems that the emerging church crowd has with the traditional churches. The problems listed are legitimate concerns and I don’t think anyone, even in the traditional church camp, would disagree. The trouble that the traditional church has, Belcher says, is with the emerging church’s answers to these problems. So the rest of the book follows a similar pattern: Problem, emerging church answer, traditional church pushing back on that answer, how the deep church should think about things.

I really enjoyed the book, myself. It challenged a lot of my views and helped me understand the emerging church a little better. I crave the type of biblical community he lays out in the first chapter as well. The book was well written and easy to follow. I actually listened to the audio version, which was very well read. I would definitely recommend this book, especially to those of us who know something is missing in some of our traditional, bible-belt churches, and want an answer that doesn’t compromise the Gospel we believe.