I recently finished reading “The 10 Dumbest Things Christians Do“, by Mark Atteberry.
The title sets itself up for a series: “10 More Dumb Things Christians Do”; “The 10 Dumbest Things Teenage Christians Do”; “The 10 Dumbest Things Christian Women Do”…I will refrain from going on.
The book makes some good points about how we as Christians can hinder the cause of Christ. The chapter titles give you a good idea of some of those topics:
“Hopping from church to church”
“Fighting among ourselves”
“Settling for mediocrity”
“Allowing wolves to live among the sheep”
“Accepting the unacceptable”
Those are five out of the ten dumbest things that Christians do.
The one that stood out to me is “Winning people to the church rather than to the Lord.” Atteberry makes the point if we bring people to the church rather than to the Lord, the potential believer will “begin their faith experience with their hopes and dreams pinned on a group of imperfect people rather than on the Lord of the universe. How can they help but be disappointed? How can we be surprised when they leave?” (p.25)
He suggests two warnings to be given to new comers: 1) You will encounter difficult and unpleasant people. 2) The church you join is not always going to be like it is today.
Recently, one of our pastors left my church, primarily due to conflicts within the leadership. As a result, a few members of the congregation left the church.
From that experience, here’s my revision of Atteberry’s warnings: 1) You will encounter difficult and unpleasant people even within the leadership of the church. 2) The church you join today will only get better if you stay to make it better.
The book is a good read, though in some areas the author contradicts himself and I did not agree with everything he says.