Jim and Casper go to Church

I just got done reading Jim and Casper Go to Church and the heart of the book is basically ‘is this what Jesus told you guys to do?’ A former pastor and an athesit visit over 12 different churches- different in style, in mission, in subculture, etc- and then the former pastor records the athiest's perspectives. An interesting theme is how different these churches are, and yet all claim to follow the same guy. Among some of what I took from the book:

• the offering seems to be always self-serving unless connected to a church's visible outside work in the community
• churches that spend significant monies on facilities and other worship resources (lights, equipment, etc) communicate the importance of the facility (whether intentional or not) and those resources
• there is a disconnect between some of the songs that we sing and the context that we sing them in (i.e. when we sing that 'this world has nothing for me' when our context might communicate otherwise)
• for the most part, the authors were not greeted at the churches with the exception of those who were 'supposed' to greet- greeters, ushers, and pastors (which, for the record, didn't 'count' for Casper). At the couple of churches where people did spontaneously greet them, it made quite the impact.
• Finally, for Casper, what he most wanted to see (and to know) was how a church's faith translated into a connection with a hurting outside world. Casper was most taken by churches who seem to convert faith into action.