Fall 2024 · Vol. 53 No. 2 · pp. 196–197
Book Review
A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture that Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing
Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2020. 256 pages.
Authors Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer attempt to uncover the root of a problem that has been growing in many North American churches: abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse (5). Their book’s title lays out the premise and goal of their endeavor; it is much less an exposé about disgraced pastors than it is a frank discussion about church cultures that elevate celebrity leaders and enable them to take advantage of their power and position within the church. Beyond resisting toxic church culture, McKnight and Barringer seek to give a word of hope as they propose a way for churches to cultivate a culture of goodness and healing. Using the Hebrew word for “good,” they call this path forward the “Circle of Tov” (8).
For this book, well-known author and professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, McKnight, teamed up with his daughter, Barringer (graduate of Wheaton College). They each provide a unique perspective on this topic as they personally experienced the effects of toxic church culture during their time at Willow Creek Community Church.
The book is divided into two sections. The first four chapters delve into how church culture is formed, how it can be deformed, and the warning signs that toxic habits are taking root within the culture of a community. This first section draws heavily on personal stories, blogs, Twitter feeds, and news stories as the authors examine cultural currents and practices that allow for abuse of power. Through this exploration they find common behaviors and habits across churches that lead to, enable, and cover up power abuse at the hands of church leaders. Key among these habits is the practice of church leaders spinning false narratives by demonizing critics, silencing the truth, condemning victims, and making excuses (chap. 4).
The second half of the book takes a positive turn to focus on how to create a culture of goodness, what the authors call the “Circle of Tov.” Chapter 5 lays out their theological framework, naming tov as the “executive virtue” that guides the way of life for the people of God (87). God is tov, what God has created and what God does is tov, and those who are redeemed by God are filled with God’s Spirit and produce fruit that is tov, such as, love, compassion, generosity, and humility. Here the authors highlight that the fruits of the Spirit are also acts of resistance (92). Just as we are called to cling to what is good, we are called to resist what is evil (1 Thess 5:21-22).
The final seven chapters describe seven habits needed to form a culture of goodness, and how these habits resist weeds of toxicity. These tov habits include empathy, grace, putting people first, truth, justice, service, and Christ-likeness. p. 197
Though McKnight and Barringer offer helpful insight into healthy and unhealthy church cultures, this book would have benefited from a more consistent ecclesiology. Specifically, does church emerge from human endeavor or divine initiative? The authors seem to vacillate between two opinions. At times it is we who “create” (9), and “build” (115) cultures of goodness. They argue that tov begins in individuals who seek like-minded individuals (124). At other times they assert that only God can create churches that are tov (86, 118). This is further muddled by their inconsistent attention to the impact of consumerism. They touch on problems like branding, customer satisfaction surveys, and treating the church like a business (203–4), but from the outset they present church as a choice and individuals as consumers (84).
Relatedly, the authors fail to directly address the phenomenon of megachurches in their discussion of church culture. Several times they skirt the issue by saying the problem is not isolated to megachurches (5), even though the bulk of their work focuses on scandals arising from Willow, Harvest, Sovereign Grace Ministries, and Mars Hill. They state, “the size of the church does not matter. What matters is a pastor’s ego” (176), failing to consider how the size and structure of congregations may innately foster abuses of power.
The authors should be commended for the way they carefully represent women, victims, and the disenfranchised. They helpfully encourage churches toward a balanced “male-female culture” (110–11). Yet, they lean heavily toward the ideas and stories of men, while voices of women come mostly from reactive places of victimhood. Proactive women promoting cultures of goodness seem overlooked, such as the late Dr. Christine Pohl and her seminal book, Living into Community: Cultivating Practices that Sustain Us (Eerdmans, 2011).
In conclusion, this book is a helpful resource for pastors, laity, and church leadership boards. It holds up a mirror for introspection and spiritual discernment, giving churches helpful warning signs to detect a rise in toxic culture or risk of power abuse. For further reflection from an Anabaptist perspective, John D. Roth’s book, Practices: Mennonite Worship and Witness (Herald, 2009), provides a helpful discussion on Christian ethics for churches seeking spiritual renewal. McKnight and Barringer likewise call the church to spiritual renewal, to be what we have been called to be, the body of Christ. Through the power of God’s Spirit, may the church continue to grow in Christlikeness and tov.
