Casper The Friendly Atheist

A couple weeks ago I began reading the book Jim & Casper Go To Church by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper. The book, in which Jim (a believer) and Matt (an atheist) travel around the country attending various churches, is described as a "frank conversation about faith, churches, and well-meaning Christians."

There are many things about this book that are appealing to me. The concept is great. The insights from both Jim and Matt are interesting. The ideas that Jim lays out about connecting with people and building relationships are important thoughts to apply to your life. The lessons to be learned from their experiences are priceless. The discussion and debate (that will no doubt arise from reading the book) about how to "do church" is invaluable.

But, I do have one fear. Believers so often quickly buy into whatever is the newest way of doing/being the church. We read the newest book on church growth, and we immediately implement what it teaches. We go to a conference, and as soon as we are back in our office we begin to put into place whatever it was that our favorite Christian celebrity preached. Obviously, most of what we read and most of what we are taught is not bad. But we fail to step back and really think about how it applies to our unique situations.

We don't ask ourselves if it fits into the culture of our church and our community. We don't stop to think about whether or not our leaders and volunteers are wired in a way that will line up with someone else's ideas. We forget that the churches that we perceive as "successful" probably didn't use someone else's model to get where they are. They more than likely created their own model (through much prayer and discernment) that would fit their leaders, volunteers, culture, and community.

Back to Jim & Casper...my fear is that church leaders will read this book and think, "Wow, I need to do everything that Matt Casper suggests so that my church will be appealing to non-believers." But here's the thing, Matt Casper is not speaking for every atheist in America. I think there is a ton to learn from Matt's observations. But, I also think that church leaders need to stop letting the books they read do all the work for them and start putting their own effort into figuring out how to reach the communities in which they live with the love of Jesus.

Yes, there are some definite lessons to be learned from Jim & Casper. I, personally, learned a lot about how to relate to people and how to shift from "defending the faith" to "defending the space" (read the book). But instead of simply doing everything that Matt Casper suggests, I think it would be more beneficial for me to find out what the "Caspers" in my own community think and go from there.

I encourage you to check out the book. More importantly, though, I encourage you to open your eyes to the culture of the community in which you live. What are the needs? How can you meet those needs?