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Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning?

Why do we “dress up” for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, and choirs? This ground-breaking book, now in affordable softcover, makes an unsettling proposal: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is rooted, not in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles.

Coauthors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence and extensive footnotes that document the origins of modern Christian church practices. In the process, the authors uncover the problems that emerge when the church functions more like a business organization than the living organism it was created to be. Viola and Barna address:

• Church traditions that aren’t found in the Bible—and that are leading people away from what Jesus taught
• What the role of a pastor looked like within the early church
• The way modern worship stifles Spirit-led participation

As you reconsider Christ’s revolutionary plan for his church?to be the head of a fully functioning body in which all believers play an active role?you’ll be challenged to decide whether you can ever do church the same way again.