Dan Kimball
Zondervan, 2012, 224 pp., $16.99

For those of us who have grown up in the church or at least been involved regularly for a while, it is really easy to forget that often our Christian communities suck us into a culture and lifestyle that doesn’t always translate to the people Christ has called us to reach. In his refreshing new book Adventures in Churchland, Dan Kimball challenges Christians to take a deeper look at our practices and understand what our actions may be communicating to a world where more and more people don’t want much to do with church.

As with Kimball’s other books, Adventures in Churchland is rich with personal stories and is an humble look at some of the author’s own challenges with church. Part One of the book is an eye-opening testimony as Kimball shares his own journey to a relationship with Christ and his current role as a senior pastor. The section focuses in on how his church experiences throughout life have hindered and encouraged the decisions that brought him to where he is today.

In Part Two, Kimball tackles two growing perceptions of many people today: the idea that churches are largely judgmental and negative, and that church is nothing more than an organized religion that controls people. In this section, Kimball does a great job of challenging both sides of these arguments.

In Part Three, he provides some solid insights for Christian leaders about overcoming these beliefs in their own ministries, as well as an ecclesiological overview about what church really is supposed to be about.

This is a great book to pick up if you truly want to understand the way some non-Christians in your community think about church. It definitely will make you think about why your church does the things it does and what changes may need to be made.