The 10 Dumbest Things Christians Do
by Mark
Atteberry.
Thomas
Nelson, Inc.
Nashville
2006
210 pp
The author was generous—“dumb” isn’t
strong enough—I would call some of his selections “bad” and even “evil”. Atteberry
is thorough in his discussion of each item; we’ll use his own words in the
following sampling of his list:—
#1. Slinging Mud on the Bride of Christ.
“Consider how it must break His heart when we
thoughtlessly besmirch the one He gave His life for, with unbecoming
words and actions.”
#3. Living
Below the Level of Our Beliefs. “...at that point in his life [re:
Bathsheba/Uriah], David’s worship was nothing but a hollow ritual. He was
showing up on time, warmly greeting all of his friends, singing all the most
popular new psalms, and no doubt offering the kind of beautiful prayers you
would expect from one of history’s greatest poets. Then, when the service was
over, he was walking unchanged right back into his pathetic, morally corrupt
little life.”
#5. Hopping
from Church to Church. “I
believe God is disappointed in all chronic church hoppers. I say that because
there are so many critical New Testament commands a church-hopping believer
simply cannot fulfill.”
#6. Fighting
Among Ourselves. “Friendly.
Fire. Two harmless words until you put them side by side. Then they become unspeakably
ugly...forgiveness is important because it makes us more like Jesus.”
#7. Missing
Golden Opportunities. ”The single most important thing you can do to
prepare yourself to be used by God is study the Scriptures.”
#8. Settling
for Mediocrity. “The church needs to be more conscious of the way it
presents itself to the lost. It’s true, God never said, “Go ye into all the
world and impress people.” But you can’t go anywhere in the world and find a
business or organization that is thriving on mediocrity...God loves excellence.”
#10. Accepting
the Unacceptable. “So anytime you find yourself in a situation where
you feel you need to speak up, ask yourself how you can do it in the least
offensive way possible. There just might be someone within earshot who is
secretly curious about the Lord they see you serving so passionately. Don’t
blow that opportunity by being needlessly mean and hateful.”
“In the process, we must never forget to reflect the
heart and character of Christ.”
Atteberry maintains a light-hearted tone
throughout the book but he knows and we know that some of his material and some
of his examples are heart-breaking.
I was personally convicted by every one of
Atteberry’s items, so much so that I wished we could share every chapter with
the whole local church, much like Ezra did in those days of the restoration of
temple worship in Jerusalem (Neh.8:1-8). He read the Scriptures then he
explained what he had read and showed how it applied to those faithful
believers.
We need to take the Scriptures to heart in
just the same way.
Reviewed by Glenn Wilson
