The article on Warren in “The Charlotte Observer” generated a tremendous response from “Observer” readers. So much of a response, in fact, that the “Observer” devoted the front page of its Saturday “Faith And Values” section two weeks later to some of the responses.
Here’s a link to some of the responses that were published. From this article, you can go to another page on the “Observer’s” site to see the original article and all the responses.
Warren was on the June 16 program “Issues Etc.,” which originates at St. Louis’s Concordia College.
“This interview was one of the best I’ve so far done,” Warren said. “The interviewer asked great questions, and I thought my answers were more clear and direct than other interviews I’ve done.”
The article that Tim Funk did for the “Charlotte Observer” is having a second life on the McClatchy wire service. It recently got picked up, in a slightly altered form, by the “Kansas City Star.” Here it is: http://www.kansascity.com/432/story/1248000.html
There’s been a flurry of blog activity related to “A Lover’s Quarrel With The Evangelical Church.” For those of you who are interested, here are six generally positive discussions of the book:
Marvin Olasky’s interesting cover story in WORLD Magazine this week asks (and answers) some provocative questions about the condition of American Christianity. “A Lover’s Quarrel With The Evangelical Church” is mentioned near the end of this article.
The June 6 “Charlotte Observer” featured a long article on Warren and on “A Lover’s Quarrel.” The article really captured the essence of the book, and is the most robust article that has been written so far. Here’s a link.
Warren has so far done more than 30 interviews in support of “A Lover’s Quarrel With The Evangelical Church.” Most of these interviews have been live and disappear as soon as they air. However, some of them are taped and are available in an mp3 or podcast format. We’ll try to post some of them here as time allows.
Here’s one I did for a Montgomery, Alabama, radio station. The host is Bob Crittenden, and the show is called “The Meeting House.” Hope you enjoy it.
Warren Cole Smith is not ready to jettison the evangelical church, but he does have a “lover’s quarrel” with it
Charlotte, N.C.–Warren Cole Smith did not start out to change the vocabulary of the modern evangelical church, but he might end up doing just that. Consider these chapter titles from his new book, A Lover’s Quarrel With The Evangelical Church:
Body-Count Evangelism: The unfortunate tendency of large evangelistic ministries to count a filled-out “decision card” as a true conversion.
The Christian-Industrial Complex: The Christian music and retail industry, which has grown to more than a $4-billion industry.
The Triumph Of Sentimentality: A “feel-good gospel” that gives us what we want, and not what we need.
According to Smith, “The modern evangelical movement has all but ceased being an organic body – the Body of Christ. Instead, it has become an industry, an industry of megachurches and parachurches.”
What I’m trying to do in A Lover’s Quarrel is recall the church to what it once knew, but has forgotten: that the church is the Body of Christ. It is a living community, not a money-making machine. The mission of the church is disciple-making, not profit-making.
Smith said that megachurches and parachurches often start out with the best of intentions, read more