Book Review: Father Tim's Church Survival Guide

Abstract

Father Tim's Church Survival Guide. By Tim Schenck. New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2015. vii + 168 pp. $14.00 (paper).Given continuing reports in the United States on declining Christian affiliation, especially for mainline Protestants (the latest Pew survey having just been released even as I type this), I mistook the title of Tim Schenck s book to refer to the church's survival in times of growing disaffection with Christianity and faith. I was ready to chide author and publisher gently for such a breezy approach as the title suggests to a thorny subject that many pastors must agonize over, plowing through libraries of the emergent, emerging, renewal, tribal, and missional church literature-not to mention the volumes devoted to strategies for stewardship and evangelism-as we fret that our parish will be the next to close.The title refers not to the survival of the church, however, but addresses those requiring counsel in how they themselves can survive the absurdities of the Episcopal Church. The question immediately arises: Why would anyone want to, when increasing numbers of defectors (witness the latest Pew survey) promise plenty of company if one simply left? For those who need more than the monthly wry observations of Jay Sidebotham's cartoons for the Church Pension Group's liturgical calendar, and would like to binge on a compendium of the more nonsensical folkways of Episcopal congregational life, this book is a prayer answered.I mean the word disarming literally. The author immediately disarms all possibility of criticism: 'Within these pages you'll find satire, snark, and tweaking of our beloved Church, but it's all done out of love. Mostly.... My take on church life isn't for everyone-clergy who take themselves too seriously will hate it. The humorless will be offended (p. 1). The humorless, whom he later characterizes as grim, sanctimonious, and judgmental (p. 162), are duly warned.The author is perhaps too modest in promising only some snark. That tone pervades the book, and he is justly proud of his prodigious talent for producing it. He even offers a reasoned defense of it as compatible with Christian discourse. Of course, high-octane snark must be difficult to maintain, and occasional glimmers of sincerity peek through, as when the author modestly confesses to enjoying the start of the program year, and celebrating baptisms and funerals. These snark-free moments provide welcome relief. …