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Church by A.W. Tozer is a compilation of thoughts from the late American theologian about the concept and life of the church. Although I’ve certainly heard the name Tozer, this was my first encounter with him and it wasn’t quite what I was anticipating. To me, he’s most known for his book, The Attributes of God, which I hope to read someday. I expected that Church would be a book about the beauty of Christ and His bride and how much of a treasure the church ought to be. While the book did contain these sentiments at times, it seemed largely composed of Tozer’s commentary on issues with the American church. It was interesting to read his thoughts especially following a year like 2020 in which the American church did have to rethink many of its practices.
Although I enjoyed reading Tozer’s thoughts and certainly have benefitted from them, I was a bit disappointed that they often weren’t accompanied by Scripture references. While it isn’t wrong to have thoughts that aren’t rooted in the Bible, it seems that one who is a pastor would long for readers to see and experience the power of the living and active word of God (Hebrews 4:12) as often as possible. This aspect of the book was a helpful reminder that it’s okay to read other people’s thoughts on subjects but it’s really important to hold their thoughts loosely as they don’t have the same level of authority as the Bible. The book does contain a page at the back that lists titles the book derives its chapters from so perhaps it would be helpful for me to read those titles to gain the full context of what Tozer was attempting to convey. While I did find Church to be an interesting and eye-opening read, it didn’t inherently point me to the beauty of Christ or cause me to love Him or His bride more so on that note, I was a little disappointed. However, I do hope to read more from Tozer in the future.
I received Church compliments of Moody Publishers in exchange for my honest review.
