Others have a problem with him stating a case for house churches as the only way to do things.
This is simply not the case as over 1/3 of the total page space is dedicated to listing sources and evidence for his arguments. Someone in one of the comments had the audacity to suggest that the author does not provide good sources for his history. It seems that those who are against this book are either unwilling to admit that there are serious problems with "doing church" or they have never read the Bible objectively without the "church goggles" that have been given to them by their pastors and/ or evengelists or other self proclaimed spiritual gurus. These type of comments only enforce one of the main points of this book - that we now rely on prestige, positions, and qualifications more than we do on the Holy Ghost.
To those I would ask if they demand the same "qualifications" when reading the writings of the apostle Paul or the disciples. Some criticize him for not being and expert in Bible theology or church history and is therefore not qualified to make such arguments. For those that say the author is good at pointing out the problems but offers no solutions, I would like to point out that the book has a sequal called "Re-imaginig Church" that does offer more detail on how to fix the problem.
I can see by the comments that people are pretty divided on this book. If you want to see that trend reversed, turn to Pagan Christianity.a book that examines and challenges every aspect of our contemporary church experience. One of the most troubling outcomes has been the effect on average believers: turning them from living expressions of Christs glory and power to passive observers. Pagan Christianity leads us on a fascinating tour through church history, revealing this startling and unsettling truth: Many cherished church traditions embraced today originated not out of the New Testament, but out of pagan practices. The New Testament is not silent on how the early church freely expressed the reality of Christ’s indwelling in ways that rocked the first-century world. Yet those practices look very different from those of the first-century church. Many Christians take for granted that their churches practices are rooted in Scripture. Co-authors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence in the first-ever book to document the full story of modern Christian church practices. Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning? Why do we "dress up" for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, choirs, and SEMInaries? This volume reveals the startling truth: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is not rooted in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles.
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