BRINGING THE CHURCH BACK TO CHRIST

A Christian pastor’s call for the church to refocus its attention back toward Christ.

As the lead pastor of the Overcomers in Christ Group of Churches, with branches in Brooklyn, Newark, and Philadelphia, Guobadia has a particular passion for developing Christian apostles. In this, his seventh book, written after “the wind of God visited” him, he turns his focus to the church, writ large, which has “been soiled by strife, division, greed, self-interest, and a reluctance to declare the truth.” As someone who believes that the church is “the bride of Christ,” Guobadia is not shy in highlighting areas where it has gone astray, such as its complicity in slavery, apartheid, and the Holocaust. While highlighting the role of Black churches in serving as a historic voice of conscience within the church, the author laments that since the Protestant Reformation, it has been divided by a “proliferation of denominations,” which has diminished Christians’ “power to speak with one voice.” The book’s pleas for a “revival” take on an urgency exacerbated by the author’s belief that end times are near. Harsh reproaches, however, are met with pragmatic solutions, including promoting and training clergy who reflect leadership qualities delineated in Scripture, increasing church involvement in anti-poverty work, “capturing the youth” through campaigns targeting millennials, and, most importantly, “returning to the Cross of Christ” by following his example of prayer and sacrifice. Despite the book’s emphasis on unity and focus on church history, it does not shy away from criticizing those in the present who the author believes has led the church astray. While most would echo the book’s condemnation of racism or sexually abusive clergy, many will recoil at its critique of the Anglican Church’s endorsement of same-sex marriage and ordination of gay clergy as part of a “satanic agenda” from which “the USA in particular, needs deliverance.” In light of its homophobia, the book’s calls to “come together” ring hollow.

A forceful, if flawed and divisive, case for the purification of the church.