I have finally finished reading Doug Pagitt’s book A Christianity Worth Believing. I’m not yet ready with a review, I haven’t even decided what form it will take. I profoundly disagree with Pagitt on just about every issue he addresses – and he addresses a lot – so my normal approach to reviewing would be a little difficult. But I wanted to throw out one observation from my reading.

The ideas Pagitt frequently argues against are a distortion of biblical Christianity. His foe is also my foe. He presents those ideas as representing traditional Christianity but I would argue that it is not. There are, however, people who believe and promote the kinds of things he argues against. Many of those people may well be in our own churches. Not all of the notions Pagitt opposes are distortions of the truth but enough of them are to make me concerned about the ideas and thinking people are carrying away from our churches.

Doctrine matters. Theology matters. Solid biblical teaching really matters. It matters because many people are left with half notions and hints at the truth but have not been guided in understanding the whole council of God. They have bits and pieces of the truth but, to paraphrase Sen. John Edwards, 99% of the truth is still not the truth. In the case of theology, 99% right would be outstanding. But many people are walking around with 25% or so of biblical truth. The result is the kinds of distorted theology Pagitt describes as traditional Christianity.

Much of this is the responsibility of the individual. People are accountable for how they study and learn about God. But churches do bear a large measure of responsibility. Churches cannot be content to teach shallow doctrine or half notions. All of Scripture must be presented to the church and it must be presented with clarity and depth. Take people deep into the word and there give them a solid foundation for their thinking. Only then will they be able to distinguish between the voice of our good shepherd and the voice of the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Church leaders, what kind of people are you raising up your church members to be? Members, what are you doing to help other Christians grow in their faith and knowledge of Christ?