Wesleyan Leadership In Troubled Times: Confronting The Culture, Challenging The Church
by David L. McKenna

Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2002, 142 pages
Reviewed by Bishop Emeritus Donald N. Bastian

Dr. David L. McKenna writes his latest book out of a passion to see solid, godly, insightful leadership renewed in Wesleyan circles in America. But his message sometimes goes beyond his target audience to utter with the same urgency a clarion call to all evangelical leaders.

The book is organized into three sections. The first roots his message in the four Great Awakenings that he notes have affected American culture. He gives only sketches of these. The second seeks to delve more deeply into how these movements should bear on the present. (At this point, the cataclysm of September 11, 2001 gets a whole chapter.) The third division gets down to cases and addresses the issue of the conflict between the radical self and a holy God. "If we as Christian leaders," he writes, "are faithful to our generation, we will step into the fray and contend for the truth of the holy God."

The title acknowledges the author's read-out on our times -- they are troubled. "Let no one be mistaken," he writes, "Our culture has been corrupted at the core by radical self-interest." His chapter entitled "The Pervasive Self" deals with the issue of sin as it works itself out in our modern world. "Self Actualization," is his most commonly used term, a term that often occurs in secular literature as representing a good thing. He shows this to be nothing more than "self-interest" and "radical self-interest" in disguise, perhaps even the pervasive self-absorption so characteristic of our times.

Self-actualization, he writes, "implies the inherent goodness of human nature that only needs to be developed …" But he identifies it as "the radical self," "self-seeking spirituality," "radical self-interest," and so forth -- all antagonistic to the requirements of a holy God.

McKenna's excellent analysis shows how this culture-wide drive for self-actualization has been wounding to the Christian community, causing fundamental and cohesive Christian values to go down one after another like falling dominoes. Here is his sequence: the communal binding power of Christian faith has been weakened, he notes, so that for growing numbers of Christians, faith is no more than a private matter. Also, denominational connections are devalued; theological integrity has ceased to be an important issue; the existence of absolutes is questioned even among professing Christians; evangelistic fervor has cooled; and, compassion is no longer the strong driving force it should be for great numbers of Christians.

His picture is supported by a careful look at things as they are, but he does not write from the perspective of an end-of-the-world pessimism. On the contrary, he writes, "Wesleyan leaders have the opportunity to send the clarion call that the Holy Spirit is the Person whom this generation seeks in its drive for self-actualization." He goes on to ask, "... How can we respond to this thirst with new vision and fresh vitality?" The answer, he says, is to "bring the 'optimism of grace' into every phase of our spiritual agenda for the 21st century." Even in times when sin seems to hold sway, he contends, grace is mightier than sin.

In his third section, McKenna writes with passion and understanding of particular ways in which Wesleyan leaders should commit themselves to whatever it takes to effect renewal in the church. In other words, lead bravely. His chapter, "The Celebration of a Holy Day," was of particular interest to me because he addresses the shocking decline of Sunday practices even among evangelical Christians. Renewal will have to change the nature of how Christians order their Sundays. This is one of several issues he raises as concrete applications of his message.

David McKenna's book is not bedtime reading. But it offers the promise of help for pastors and active lay leaders who care about the well-being of the church enough to confront with vigor the present state of affairs. Pastor's Cabinets, Official Boards and weekend retreats could be greatly helped by interacting with the author's prophetic vision, so thoughtfully put down in print.