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Reviewed by Kenneth H. Carter Jr., senior minister at Providence United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Introducing The Uncommon Lectionary: Opening The Bible To Seekers and Disciples by Thomas G. Bandy Tom Bandy is a consultant to congregations and denominations. He is the author of a number of books that have provoked healthy conversation among those who lead and care about the church’s present and future mission. This book is inherently provocative; Bandy takes on one of our most cherished ways of seeing the world, the Revised Common Lectionary, and offers a critique of its assumptions and usefulness. This is a valuable exercise in at least two respects. First, it is helpful for pastors to reflect critically on how they practice ministry. The Revised Common Lectionary can become the lens through which we see the scriptures, the church, and even life itself, and if we do not reexamine our use of it, we may find that our vision is out of focus! Second, the Revised Common Lectionary may indeed serve cultural and ecclesial contexts very different from the ones we now inhabit. Indeed, this is Bandy’s argument, and it is one that is worthy of our engagement. One of Bandy’ s purposes is to critique the Revised Common Lectionary. This purpose serves his larger aim in the book, however, which is to offer a new framework for reading scripture in the church: an uncommon lectionary. And so he plots out two one-year cycles (replacing our current three year cycle), one focusing on seekers, the second aimed at disciples. These cycles seek an integrity of lifestyle issues, missional purpose and spiritual questions, and take into account the reality of Christian participation in cultural calendar and practices (Valentine’s, Super Bowl, Back To School, etc.). Suggesting that our cultural climate longs for (and demands) worship that is not merely good, but great, Bandy perceives three organizing functions inherent in great worship: missional, communal, and companionship with Christ. That worship serves these purposes in no way trivializes the act of worship itself; indeed, worship that sends people out in mission (the Great Commission), that builds and nurtures community, and that leads people into relationship with Christ has its own integrity. Through the use of case studies, Bandy imagines teams in local churches responding (successfully and unsuccessfully) to the cultural longings for great worship. Along the way he makes particular assumptions about our culture, often displayed in either/or, forced choice boxes. While my experience is that life is not always so clear-cut, I do appreciate Bandy’s attempt to incite the reader into reevaluating his or her assumptions. For this reason, one might read this book and put the uncommon lectionary into practice; or one might, by virtue of engaging with this text, remove some of the cultural blinders; or one might connect the assumptions of the Revised Common Lectionary with the need to reach seekers and disciples. Bandy insists that this cannot be done----that the common and uncommon are too different to be blended. Is he correct? Leaders of local churches will need to make those judgments. You won’t need to agree with everything Tom Bandy says here to benefit from this book. You do need to be open to the possibility that God is populating our world with seekers who do not understand our usual ways of structuring worship. You will also need to consider the call, once again, to make disciples. We can no longer move into the future counting on the members who have been with us in the past to fill our congregations. We do live and worship on a mission field, and Tom Bandy’s provocative reframing of the lectionary will be well worth any pastor’s prayerful reflection.
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