This is the title of my new favorite book. Working off Matthew 7:9-10, “Or what man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?”, the author contends that contemporary worship has offered people idolatrous stones rather than the bread of life. I am only through the fourth chapter, yet am thoroughly impressed with his argument. His name is A. Daniel Frankforter and he is a medieval history professor. His background is apparently Presbyterian or Reformed of some sort. Some of his exegesis is puzzling in places, but does not affect his larger argument. I’ll offer some tidbits over the next few days.

“American churches are exposed to powerful temptations to make themselves appealing by misrepresenting the Christian faith. Since they are voluntary organizations whose survival depends on their ability to recruit members in a highly competitive market, their leaders tend to develop a business mentality. They fixate on ‘the bottom line’ and strive to maintain ‘market share’ by ditching old ‘products’ and experimenting with new packaging. Seldom do they take seriously Jesus’ warning that the message he sends them to preach is not designed to make apostles popular” (Preface, xiii).

“Pressure is building on congregations to fabricate easily marketed facsimiles of worship-to buy amplifiers, hire rock bands, outfit clergy with clothing from the Gap, substitutes amateur theatricals for exegetical sermons, scrap sacraments in favor of support groups, and jettison troubling biblical texts for the smarmy cream of pop poetry. This at least acknowledges that the church knows that it has a problem, but the solutions proposed approach that problem from the wrong end. Little of lasting significance is gained by tinkering with the language, gestures, trappings, music, and other incidentals of worship, unless sufficient attention is paid to what these vessels are intended to convey” (13). 

Amen.