In
"Viral Jesus" Ross Rhode
attempts to show the reader how we've strayed from the biblical model for
church. That Church should be contagious
and spread virally as opposed to slow growth he claims the Church is seeing
currently. However, early on he
alienates a large number of his readers by having a very narrow view of what
church should be saying a lesson should never be prepared before hand, implying
that a church isn't growing that the Holy Spirit isn't there and going as far to say Christianity isn't
spreading rapidly anywhere in the west - ignoring areas of Christianity that
are growing.
I find that Rhode does a good job at
analyzing the problem - pointing out things within the Church that aren't
working, that are problematic or are uniblical - but I'm not convinced of the
solution. Are descriptive passages in
Acts meant to be prescriptive for all time? Is how the early church did church
supposed to be normative or is this able to change with culture? Yes we are stuck doing what we've always done
but does that mean our only option is to copy the early church? He critiques the institutional church for
reading their views onto the gospel - but I feel he is doing the same. Yes the
church is too structured at times, seeks too much control, but do we abandon it
all? The church grew rapidly even after
it was institutionalized so God was there - we need change, renewal, redemption
- but to throw it all out? seems a bit
drastic
To me it
seems like he's had a narrow experience with church only attending those who primarily care about pure doctrine
and have a more liturgical style and is rebelling against it while never
acknowledge the good that is found within it and that though it isn't for him
it does speak to many. In the end he
ends up positing just as narrow of a view of what constitutes a church as those
he criticizes - leaving me wondering if he'd be shocked to see the Holy spirit
moving within more traditional churches.
In the end
I find that he tears down but does little to build back up, all while implying
that numbers are the only things that matters.
Criticizes wisdom, intelligence - but doesn't explain how to follow
through with making decisions. He says
everything needs to be simple, that instead using wisdom God has given us we
should just wait for prophecy. It seems
he's taking certain gifts of the spirit and placing them above others.
I found it
quite hard to get through this book - from the writing style, to the repetitive
nature, to the narrow view posited within it.
Though there were valuable critiques made about the church and how it
has changed and developed over the centuries, I found that I had to be intentional
about picking out the wheat from the chaff - trying to find those kernels of
truth while not just ignoring it all because of his way of ignoring other views
of the gospel.
