"The Church in Dark Times" (Mike Cosper)

TITLE: The Church in Dark Times: Understanding and Resisting the Evil That Seduced the Evangelical Movement
AUTHOR: Mike Cosper
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2024, (208 pages).

What are dark times? What are the risks facing the evangelical churches today? How do ordinary churches fall down the path of shame? What are the signs of seduction? What are the social and cultural influences that we need to be aware of? What ideological, spiritual, or structural factors are involved in scandals? These questions are dealt with in depth by Mike Cosper who had previously produced and hosted the podcast, "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill." Writing with Hannah Arendt's insights on human behaviour and experiences of abuse, he defines dark times under the umbrella of totalitarianism, and how totalitarian ideology is seductive to the modern mind. Churches need to discern and resist the temptation toward evil within their organizations. Anchored on the Bible verse to "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you," (James 4:7), author Mike Cosper exposes the telltale signs of abuses, conspiracies, denials, violence, and the infiltration of devilish ideologies that sought to hide the Truth. Using the defunct Mars Hill Church as a backdrop to the book, Cosper seeks to extend Arendt's reflections on her experiences with the evil Nazi regime. Dark times are not simply about totalitarianism. It includes how the world becomes disconnected from goodness and purpose. 

Part One of the book lists the signs and symptoms of environments entering dark times. 

Cosper aims at ideologies that distort Truth. He spends some time describing the demise of Mars Hill Church and the reasons that led to Pastor Mark Driscoll's fall from grace. Behind each rise in power of any institution or movement, beware of the evil ideologies that feed their growth. Such ideologies substitute the Truth with lies. They turn authority into authoritarianism. They coerce others to support their agendas. They subdue the good with attractive numbers. Often, external measures of success are used to hide underlying problems. Left unchecked, once the idol of ideology takes root, human wisdom, and personal agendas drive the organization deep into dark waters. 

Part Two is an attempt to resist the road into dark times. Cosper learns from Eugene Peterson's life of preferring humble community over glitzy celebrity. He derives lessons from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" which highlights the beauty of love amid the hustle and bustle of a busy lifestyle. He provides practices to resist dark times:

• Solitude to further spiritual formation (instead of popularity and accumulation of worldly success)
• Storytelling and Culture Making to encourage the community
• Worship that offers our service to God

My Thoughts

I will answer three questions: How real is the problem? What is the extent? What is my general feeling about the book?

First, the problem is a real one. In the West, there is a general decline in Church attendance. Young people are avoiding Church, leaving many congregations to gray out. Many churches are struggling financially to maintain their premises. Church boards, community leaders, and pastors continually look to "successful" churches to draw people into their churches. They try to copy how the megachurches and growing churches do their ministry. With such focus on numbers and attractional-based strategies, the Church-Growth movement becomes the driving ideology. Pastors style themselves as celebrities to draw in the crowds. Drawing people into the Church becomes the primary concern while discipleship and spiritual disciplines take the back seat. Sometimes, claims that promote the gospel first become mere lip service as long as people are coming. 

This leads us to the second question: "What is the Extent of the problem?" Cosper mentions a handful of churches that have fallen prey to the idolatry of ideology. In fact, the author claims to witness and experienced the problem first-hand. His three books all revolve around the problem of unhealthy Church. The first book looks at the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. His second on the Sojourn Church where he was fired from, and the third book is this book which becomes more general. Critics might argue that Cosper is exaggerating the problem. Surely things are not so bad? My answer is simply this: Better to heed the warning before anything worse happens. Just because a Church has no signs of being in dark times does not necessarily mean it will stay that way into the future. This calls for generational witness and teaching. Soldiers do not wait until there is a war before they get trained. Firemen do not wait passively for fires to happen before equipping themselves with firefighting skills. Schools should never wait until an earthquake before practicing earthquake drills. Likewise, Christian leaders should not presume that what happened to others will never happen to their parishes. Thus, even of the problem described by Cosper might not be widespread now, it is always good to heed the warning signs.

Finally, I feel that this book is written more as a warning rather than a description of the Church today. It is birthed out of ministry pains personally experienced by the author. Before we dismiss Cosper's description of the dark times facing the Church, we should take heed of not letting ideology become our idols. Faithfulness is more important than success. Keeping the Church pure is preferred to trying to make the Church palatable to the world. Before we can solve any problem, we need to understand what the problem is in the first place. Ask the right questions. Challenge the leadership toward Christlikeness over and above personal goals. I know of churches that have tried to push human agendas in the name of Jesus. Let theology speak louder than ideology.

Mike Cosper has been creating music, radio shows, and podcasts for more than twenty years. He produced and hosted The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast and is director of podcasts at Christianity Today. He now cohosts a weekly podcast called The Bulletin. He's also the author of several books, including Recapturing the Wonder: Transcendent Faith in a Disenchanted World (Intervarsity Press). His other books include Faith Among The Faithless (Thomas Nelson), Rhythms of Grace and The Stories We Tell (both published by Crossway Books). Mike also served as one of the founding pastors at Sojourn Church in Louisville, Kentucky, from which he launched Sojourn Music – a collective of musicians writing songs for the church. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, Sarah, and their daughters Dorothy and Maggie. 

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Academic via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.