Book Review: Vintage Church

Earlier this year I read through Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears' Vintage Church, an effort at redefining what a church is according to Scripture, and explaining the structure and methods employed by their churches in particular.

The subtitle of the book is Timeless Truths and Timely Methods, and in essence the book is split into two parts: the first explains the need for the timeless truths to be preached in and at the core of any modern church, and the second goes into some detail in explaining the methods that the authors and their adherents believe are best in the twenty-first century.

I found the first few chapters, on the whole, very refreshing. Driscoll and Breshears (though it is mostly Driscoll writing the chapters and Breshears handling Q&As at the end of each) take us right back to the basics of what should be happening in churches big or small: the preaching of God's Word, the membership of professing believers, heartfelt worship, administering of the Sacraments, and church unity. The writer should be aware, however, that the book is as much a defence of the theology and beliefs of Driscoll and his church as it is a call to uphold these elements. A criticism I would make of Driscoll, having listened to and read his work for a while now, is that at times his practice seems to be based on a fairly thin reading of the New Testament, rather than on a full reading of the whole of Scripture. So, for example, I wasn't entirely convinced on secondary issues like mode of baptism or frequency of having the Lord's Supper. Nonetheless, his emphasis on the importance of preaching and the other biblical elements of corporate worship is encouraging.

All the same I found the second half of the book more interesting. The last four or five chapters deal with the methods of a modern church; for Driscoll this means multi-site churches, lots of video and a missional theology. Again I wouldn't say I was entirely swayed by everything here - I'm far from convinced of the merits of a multi-site church with one preacher beamed all round them 75% of the time - but I think there is a lot here that any church should consider in its efforts to remain in touch with modern culture whilst at the same time absolutely holding to their biblical and theological convictions. For those churches that still don't even have a website, these chapters will be truly revolutionary!

On the whole I would say Vintage Church is well worth a read, if even only to get you thinking about how well your church is getting out its message or to find out more about why Mars Hill Church in Seattle looks and sounds the way it does. Again I would stress you probably won't agree with everything you find here, and you don't have to; but I did appreciate that every point Driscoll made was backed up with Scripture references, and the footnotes indicate a wide range of reading and influence being brought to bear on the book.

Vintage Church challenges the reader to evaluate the performance of its church in holding to timeless truths with timely methods. It may not answer all the questions, but it certainly gives useful suggestions.