Question: What aspects of the book Deep & Wide and The Prodigal Church have stood out the most to you thus far in your reading?
Aspects of deep and wide that have stood out the most to me.
The one thing that stood out to me the most as I read Andy Stanley’s book was how he didn’t give a good biblical explanation for some core positions and activities that his church does. One such example is requiring videos for baptism. Stanley wrote, “Our doctrinal statement is conservative. Our approach to ministry is not. You have to allow us to video record a three-minute version of your story to be shown on Sunday morning in order to be baptized. No video, no baptism. We don’t have any verses to support that. It keeps the baptism numbers low. But baptism is central to our worship and arguably our most powerful evangelism tool.” [1]
I think this is an overly serious position to take. Stanley essentially puts a requirement for Baptism where the scriptures have none. He admits to doing so without apology. Over the years, both as a medical professional and a missionary, I have seen people who have a terrible phobia for public speaking or anything that resembles it. They would cringe at the thought of being on camera. To require these people to be on camera to be baptized when there is no biblical precedent is, in my view, very thoughtless and could possibly amount to exploitation. It is reasonable to surmise that Stanley and his leaders are doing all this in order to extract advertising footage from these people. If this weren’t done by a church, it might be considered illegal. People should have a choice in whether they do these videos or not. And we are not talking about recording the baptism event but actually putting people on Camera or following them with Cameras to do it. I think it adds a severe stumbling block or hardship in their paths.
In addition to that, Stanley acknowledges that this activity keeps the baptism numbers low. Does any believer have the power to keep the baptism numbers low or high?
It stood out to me that the emotional sensitization that such baptism videos carry can, in and of themselves, move some people to seek such baptisms not because they want to commit to Christ but because they want to be a part of the tribe. We see infomercials on television in which person after person comes and talks about how a particular product has saved their lives. Even when these people are paid actors, the commercial works to produce real converts of the product.
In medicine, there is the placebo effect, a phenomenon in which people who have been told a sugar pill is a great cure for a certain malady that they have actually register measurable and scientifically significant improvements after taking it. All this is due to the power of expectations on the minds of the patient. I believe, quite apart from the Holy Spirit, the attractional system that Stanley has built can create converts without a need for the Holy Spirit whatsoever.
Another thing that stood out to me was the absence of an emphasis on prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit as the only means for winning souls.
Aspects of the Prodigal Church that have stood out the most to me.
As I read the Prodigal church, several things stood out to me. Given that I read Wilson’s book after reading Andy Stanley’s book, many of the things that stood out to me were points of contrast between his book and Stanley’s book.
Though very poignant in his writing, Wilson approached the subject with an air of humility and calls his peers to re-examine the way they have been operating churches. His humility was contrasted, in my view, to Stanley’s somewhat proud attitude that stroke me as one telling others to convert to his way of doing things because he has found what works and produces results.
The prodigal church was very refreshing to read. The thing that stood out to me the most was the fact that Wilson made very strong arguments for his position and supported them with evidence. For example, he cites statistics from the Barna group [2], Willow Creek’s REVEAL study [3], and numerous other sources to support his arguments.
How are the books similar in their approach? (Address the theological and philosophical approaches, not grammar or writing styles.)
Both Stanley and Wilson are passionate about the local church and about winning the lost for Christ. They agree that evangelism is a central calling of the church.
How are the books dissimilar in their approach?
Even though both authors are passionate about evangelism and the local church, they approach things very differently. Andy Stanley’s book is an apologetic for attractional churches. It is a how-to-book in which he encourages people to create attractional churches and then teaches them how to do so by sharing with them how he has done it at NorthPoint Community Church.
Wilson’s book, on the other hand, is a clarion call for course change within the attractional church movement. It is a well-written argument against pragmatism, consumerism, and all the other ails of the attractional church. It also provides recommendations for course change.
Bibliography
Stanley, Andy. Deep & Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016.
Wilson, Jared. The Prodigal Church: A Gentle Manifesto against the Status Quo. Wheaton: Crossway, 2015.
Foot Notes
[1] Andy Stanley, Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 80.
[2 ]Jared C. Wilson, The Prodigal Church: A Gentle Manifesto against the Status Quo (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015), 34.
[3] Wilson, The Prodigal Church, 36.
