BOOK REVIEW: Life in the Evangelical Subculture via Dan Kimball

Adventures in Churchland: Discovering the Beautiful Mess Jesus Loves by Dan Kimball
My rating: 2 of 5 stars


As a younger person, Dan Kimball found himself strangely drawn to the person of Jesus Christ but at the same time had a strong distaste for organized religion. His sporadic encounters with evangelical Christians continued to accentuate these negative opinions, but at the same time left him contemplating who Jesus really was. He ultimately became a follower of Jesus Christ, joined a local church and found himself immersed in the evangelical Christian culture, which he refers to as "Churchland".

This is the basis for his book, Adventurers in Churchland, which is part autobiography, part historical treatise on the early church as originally conceived by Jesus. Kimball attempts to encourage those of like mind who feel like misfits in the Church, while reaching out to those who have never set foot in the church by urging them to look past evangelical stereotypes and their own distaste for organized religion. Attempts and miserably fails at!

Where do I even begin with this review?! I suppose I should start by saying that I could relate to Kimball's attitude because I also grew up outside of Churchland and found it quite a shock when I became a Born Again Christian and was suddenly thrust into this subculture. Assuming that it would be as close to Heaven on Earth as a person could find, I was actually in for a very rude awakening. I spent my first years sometimes stunned, sometimes appalled by Christian behaviour. How many times did I think to myself, “And they dare to call themselves a Christian!” I took my exasperation to the Lord and He encouraged me to stay in the congregation of Believers I was in. I decided to stay and help change attitudes, misconceptions, and beliefs and that would affect a change. So I do understand Dan Kimball’s point of view and desires. However, his own disdain for Churchland and arrogance outweighs even my own.

Let me give you the example that he himself uses at the very beginning of the book in the Foreword. He relays a personal anecdote, which I think he believes is humorous, where he tells the story of participating in a Christmas pageant while he is the Youth Pastor of a church. He is so “intensely embarrassed” by the poor performances, bad music, and homemade costumes that when the curtain goes up he dives to the floor and spends the entire thing hiding behind the fifty person choir. He admits that everyone was trying their best and it was enjoyed by both those performing it and the audience. But instead of having a self-deprecating attitude for his actions he takes on the attitude of, “Those poor people. They just didn’t realize how awful they were” In fact, I had to read it several times because I was sure I must have misinterpreted his intentions or misunderstood what he was saying. Which would have been easy because he is not a very good writer.

From that moment on the rest of the book was tainted for me. The whole thing is filled with Christian bashing, although Kimball does it as if he is one of us and is saying all of these things for the good of the Church. I could barely believe that it was published by Zondervan, which is such a reputable Christian publisher. (How did they let this one get away from them?) I started out feeling sorry for Dan Kimball. Then I felt sorry for those who would read his books (for he has written many). Then I felt sorry for the Churches that he was, AND IS, a Pastor at. And now, … I want to give him a good bop in the nose! As if he had just called my little sister a "bag" and my mother a "cow", I don't like it when my family members are trounced on. I suppose I’m one of those evangelicals that he is so embarrassed by.

There is one redeeming quality to this book. Kimball distinguishes between Jesus and the church. Telling us not to dismiss Jesus simply because we don’t like Christians, evangelicals or organized religion. That Jesus is worthy to be sought after no matter how His followers behave.

Kimball writes as if he is one of us and is always using the pronoun, “we”, but then goes on page after page to list and dissect all our problems, mistakes, and sins. I can’t imagine what he was thinking when he wrote this, but I can surmise why he wrote it. He used to be part of a rock band in London, which he states repeatedly, while consistently name-dropping some of the biggest names in American music. He also had Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Wanda Jackson, write a Foreword. I think he is trying to make the statement that even though he may be an evangelical Christian, he is still one of the “cool kids” (whatever he perceives that to be).

I could go on for much longer, but I’ll spare you and hopefully my review will spare you the ordeal of reading this book. Because, unless you are equally embarrassed by your fellow evangelicals, this book will not appeal to you. In fact, the only people I can imagine who will want to read it are the non-Christians who "have never set foot in a church" which is the people Kimball says he has written the book for and wishes to change. However, instead of helping them see past our problems and see Jesus, he has just given them a lot more ammunition for their beliefs. With his writing and reminiscing and publicly displaying everything wrong we do without showing all the truly great things that Christians have done that reflects Jesus, he will only entrench them even more in their beliefs. I can't even be hopeful that they will come across a Bible verse that "will not return void" because, even though Kimball has many Bible references, they are in one big list at the end of the book. This book was not an adventure. It's just a bad trip!

And if you know the Lord at all, you can probably guess what happened to me when I “stuck it out” in my local church in my early Christian days. The attitude that Jesus changed was mine. And the change affected was in my own pompous, self-righteous heart as I consistently failed, fell and sinned but was still loved and accepted by the same Brothers and Sisters I was originally so keen to judge.
“Thank you, Lord, for the gift of public humiliation. May you send this same blessing to Dan Kimball. Amen”

Thank you for reading another one of my reviews.

Sincerely, Laura-Lee (Was Here)






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