Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Got Empathy?
Tom Bandy reveals the cultural wedges and apathies that separate denominations, congregations, and neighbors from each other and from collective social agency. Bandy describes the church in America as "sidelined"--observing cultural change but not participating in the game. He suggests proven provocative ways the church can re-engage and empathize with the people within their reach.
By mining the lifestyle data revealed by the nation's economic engines and social trends, this frank and ground-breaking sociological analysis is a must read for every church leader who embraces hope for a fragmented, diverse, and polarized world.
"For years Tom Bandy has been attempting to get the once-mainline-oldline-now-sideline church back in the game. In this fast-paced, energetic book, Tom shows us how churches can be in missions to the diverse cultures that seem to respond to our stolid mainline moderation with a yawn."
--William Willimon, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC
"Sideline Church represents fresh perspectives in an often tired conversation. If the church hopes to speak compellingly to people today, it must learn first to listen again. Brandy's insights will likely provoke the complacent, but it may also inspire church leaders to hear culture with new ears. This book is a worthy successor to Tex Samples' work on US Lifestyles and Mainline Christians."
--Michael Jinkins, President of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and author of The Church Faces Death and The Church Transforming.
"Bandy's language of chasm aptly describes the current relationship of church and culture. Bridging that gap involves empathetic immersion with and love for the multiple cultures among us. For those willing to enter this challenging engagement, Bandy offers essential knowledge about how diverse cultural cohorts think about God and meaning in differing ways."
--Lovett H. Weems, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Church Leadership, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC
Synopsis
In 1990 Tex Sample US Lifestyles and the Mainline Church intended to help Protestant churches become more relevant to cultural diversity, but it did much more than that. It revealed the growing crack between established churches of all kinds and the changing, fracturing, multiplying societies around them. Sideline Church is a second installment, so to speak, almost thirty years later. The crack revealed in 1990 has now widened into a chasm. Most churches, regardless of their tradition, are now on the sidelines. They observe cultural change, but don't care to participate in it.
Like spectators at a ball game, these churches watch. They may sing songs or shout encouragement, or they may shout criticisms and lament mistakes. Occasionally churches will leave their seats to get a hot dog with their friends or quarrel with their enemies. Occasionally there is a "wave" as sections of the Christendom stadium rise to their feet to celebrate their particular denomination or tradition. Often today there are angry confrontations as liberals and conservatives shout insults at one another across the stadium. Churches become so preoccupied with what is going on in the stands that they pay less and less attention to the game. The cheer and boo as some churches leave their seats and change sides. They project their own hopes and fears on individual players who become proxy representatives for a particular cause or policy.
If we were to reverse the metaphor and pretend that the spectators were actually players, we might see the game descend into chaos and become a brawl. Even more obvious, however, would be the empty stands. Fewer and fewer people are watching. The very spectacle of Christians brawling with each other has lost appeal. Nobody will buy tickets. The media won't bother to cover the game.
Even megachurches are not immune. Their membership is remarkably homogeneous by race, age, income, family status, marital status, language, etc. The membership city does not even come close to mirroring the demographic and lifestyle diversity of the city itself. Typically, its location on the beltway suggests a church on the sidelines of the city, their penetration into demographic diversity limited to offsite outreach away from the "home" campus.
Many churches will never be able to cross that chasm between churches and culture. When push comes to shove, privilege measures risk, many churches don't want to try anyway. When it comes to change, they will always worry more about members they might lose than strangers they might bless. Some churches can and will cross that chasm. Those that do will discover that the key is empathy. It is empathy of the most intimate and profound kind. It is a true "heart burst" for someone other than yourself.
"For years Tom Bandy has been attempting to get the once-mainline-oldline-now-sidelined church back in the game. In this fast-paced, energetic book, Tom shows us how churches can be in mission to the diverse cultures that seem to respond to our stolid mainline moderation with a yawn. Tom's book can be the catalyst that, in your church and mine, restores the adventure of being the Body of Christ in motion." William H. Willimon, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School