David Fitch is currently a professor of theology, ministry, and ethics at Northern Seminary. He is also the pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance church, Life on the Vine Christian Community in Illinois.
In The Great Giveaway, Fitch offers the argument that evangelicalism has structured itself around a modern worldview, fundamentally asserting the authority of modern science and individual reason, and therefore failing to engage the “current cultural shifts to postmodernity” (17). The church has “given away” its historical and biblical roles of evangelism, leadership, worship, preaching, justice, spiritual formation, success, and the moral education of our children to modernity. Fitch dedicates one chapter to each of these areas, offering practices for the church to resist modern influences. He predicts the demise of North American evangelical churches as irrelevant and shrinking if they do not make these changes.
I appreciated the premise of The Great Giveaway. Fitch made a strong case as he laid his foundation, describing the clash between modernity and postmodernity within the North American church. I felt he applied this especially well in his chapter on evangelism. He compared the current evangelical modern approach of individualized apologetic conversion, in which it is assumed that the individual mind can be presented with facts and make a rational decision, to a postmodern disbelief in unbiased, absolute truth. Postmoderns wish to see this truth lived out in relationship. So instead of handing out the “The Four Spiritual Laws,” Fitch suggests that the church practice the acts of true hospitality, mercy and justice, community, worship, and true discipleship. I think a lot of truth can be found in his suggested method of evangelism as lived out in relationship over time.
While I agree with his overall premise, I felt Fitch attempted to address too many diverse issues within the church in one book. He attempted to be the expert on some extremely diverse arenas, from worship and preaching to psychology and public education. I was not able to accept his assertions, for example, that psychology as a general field is completely misguided and of no use in its current form to any Christian. This is a bold, unsubstantiated claim that I feel is far too extreme.
I was especially interested in his chapter critiquing the public education system in its moral education of our children, as this related directly to my case study of teaching within this system. Fitch’s contention was that the church should bear a much more distinct, involved role in the spiritual rearing of children and that this should be lived out within the family, thus enabling children to be wise and evaluative as they enter public education. While true, the premise of this chapter was very hands-off from the school system. He seems to be saying that, as parents, the most we can do is prepare our children by teaching them the fundamentals of Christianity, then send them off into the upredictable terrain of public educaiton and hope for the best. He failed to address the church or family’s role within the school. The only types of involvement he discussed were ones he felt to be ineffective such as advocating for the removal of evolution or the teaching of abstinence. He did not offer or even encourage other forms of active involvement or work to bring about transformation within public education.
While not perfect, I feel this book is an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue regarding the church’s role within North American postmodern culture.
