If you have a head on your shoulders at all you will realize that the church in many places is in big trouble. One committed Christian man said to me recently about his church, which is packed to over flowing each week - "it is a mile wide and an inch deep." David Wells would not be long in explaining why to my friend.
The author is in a league of his own when assessing where the church is at today. With intricate and careful research David Wells pieces together the factors that have shaped and honed the church of today. Granted that he is primarily speaking of the situation in the US. But it is not too difficult to transplant his thesis to the church this side of the shuck.
This book was assigned reading at RTC back in the early 90s. Having revisited it 20 years on I benefited even more this time round. Well's desire is the the church be what God intended her to be. "I want the church to be an alternative to post modern culture, not a mere echo of it."
In a day and age when the church is losing her way big time pastors need to sit up and read this book if they are to be God's men for reform.
Just another quote to whet your appetite "Churches imagine that the less they ask or expect of believers, the more popular they will become and the more contented the worshippers will be. The reverse is true."
It is not a read for the sun or a bedtime browse. But if you can hide away the warnings and grapple with some of the diagnosis - you may well be God's agent of reform in your church, or at least a plug in a crumbling wall.
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