Hollow Faith 1 - Intro

Let us pretend a bit today.  Let's say that we are sales reps for a large manufacturer.  Most studies indicate that we can expect a sales quota of approximately 10% of our total contacts.  This is widely regarded as an acceptable number as there will always be those who neither want nor need our product.  But let's say that the product we are peddling is something like fire extinguishers.  We can now divide our contacts into two broad groups - those who have fire extinguishers and those that need one.  In truth, everybody needs a fire extinguisher in their home or business.  Still, our quotas remain around 10%.  Let's add the idea that our sales manager has already vetted our contact list and is only sending us out to talk about fire extinguishers among people who don't already own one.  We can up the ante once again and say that we represent the only fire extinguisher manufacturer in the world.  I'll even go so far as to say we're not even selling the fire extinguishers but giving them away.  Now how do we account for our 10% quotas?  Even allowing for the odd fool who simply refuses to acknowledge the need for a fire extinguisher, at some point we are forced to conclude that we are simply really bad sales reps!

That's where I see the Western church today.  We say that everyone needs to enter the Kingdom of God.  We claim to hold the only keys to that Kingdom, and we profess to be passing out copies of those keys to anyone willing to take them.  And yet, for all of that, our conversion rates still tend to hover around 10%, for which we blithefully blame the foolishness of our unsaved brothers and sisters.  It never occurs to us that we might just be really bad sales reps!

I recently came across a book entitled Hollow Faith: How Andy Griffith, Facebook and the American Dream Diluted the Gospel, written by Stephen Ingram (Abingdon Press, 2011).  Frankly, I found the title a bit offensive, so I did the only reasonable thing I could: I brought the book home and read it.

I found myself pleasantly surprised.  While Ingram is a youth minister, and the book is written to other youth ministers, I found it to serve as a fairly well-researched critique of modern Western theology in a much broader sense.  Ingram manages to nail down several very specific reasons why Western Christendoms' conversion and retention levels are so abysmally low.  Spoiler Alert - it's not because of all those unrighteous heathens out there!

I'd like, then, to spend a few posts presenting my impressions of the work.  It's a very short book - only six chapters.  I'm writing this prior to any editing, but I presume, unlike my review of The Problem of Wineskins, I shan't be using Stephen's words too much.  This will not be so much a review as a presentation of my own impressions upon reading it.

According to his bio, Stephen Ingram has served as the Director of Student Ministries at Canterbury United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama and has worked as a student minister for more than 16 years.  He also serves as a lead consultant with Ministry Architects.  In the introduction, Ingram states that "most youth ministers have a dirty little secret...I am writing this book to finally tell that secret, to liberate all of us who know the secret but are unable to say it ourselves.  We believe that the church is failing.  We believe that the church is producing poor imitations of Christianity.  We see the hollow, disconnected faith of its people.  We see youth disengaging, we know why, and we know that no one wants to hear the truth.  But we also know that we simply cannot wait any longer."

Further in, Ingram states "I spent nine years in higher theological education with the purpose of learning how to 'read' the Bible.  One of the things I discovered during my time studying and dissecting the text was that I had become very good at reading the Bible.  I had not become as good at letting the Bible read me...One of the most important lessons I try to teach my youth today is that the primary purpose of the gospel is not being a gospel for us to interpret and apply to life.  It is a document that should be applied and allowed to interpret us, our beliefs, communities, nations, vices, and virtues.  The gospel is not our tool for living; it is the standard by which we measure how we live.  I hope we can rediscover this gospel that reads us." [emphasis mine]

The book is divided into two sections, one for youth ministers and the second, covering the same material, aimed at the parents of youth.  In an effort to keep these theses as short as reasonably possible, I shall be combining information for both into single posts.  I pray that these efforts may open a few eyes, as, indeed, the original work did mine.  As always, I encourage any interested reader to purchase a copy of the book.  I have no wish to deprive any author of their mightily due royalties.

Pax