THE SPLIT-LEVEL FELLOWSHIP

The suburban church is the subject of study in this book which the author directs toward officers and teachers in local congregations, college professors, and denominational executives. He believes that the local church is not yet defused, and that in spite of the contradictions in its professions and its behavior, it remains as one of the ""unexplained miracles of all time."" The author employs as his basic concept the ""Beta-factor,"" which he defines as the inescapable fact that within the body of the church two different kinds of people are to be found -- the leaders and the followers, who might also be described as the committed and the nominal church members. Requirements for church members, Conversion, Liturgy, Christian Nurture, , and Ethics, are among the chapter headings under which the theme of the book is developed. The author is conversant with much going on within and without the church, but his mind seems to be accumulative more than assimilative; and this results in a certain over-stuffed and unintegrated effect in style and order.