A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing

One of the questions I’m frequently asked is how to find a good church. I appreciate the inquiry every time because I believe strongly in the church. I’m so grateful to God for Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer because they do an amazing job of teaching us what a good one looks like in A Church Called Tov.

What a theologically savvy and empathy-embracing book for today’s church! Reading A Church Called Tov reminded me of why I love the church, and how that affection can also mean telling the truth about her missteps and broken pieces. In a world of high profile failures and scandals, this book offers a prophetic reimagining of the Acts 2 church. It is hopeful, relevant, and encouraging.

It is tragic that a book like this has to be written. However, if good can come of tragedy, this book is a testimony to that. In this volume, Scot and Laura have given the church a way of identifying, naming, and addressing toxic church cultures with a view to retraining our thinking to create cultures of goodness and healthy churches. It is full of wisdom, insight, and truthful exegesis which brings its own light. It is a gift to leaders, pastors in training, and importantly, victims of abuse who desperately need champions. In my view, this should be essential reading for anyone who has any leadership responsibility in a church.

This profoundly important book addresses the problem of toxic church culture and shows how we change it. It is brave, thoughtful, and transformational. The answers it offers are woven around the key Hebrew word tov, which means good—and so much more. If you have been wounded by your experience of church, you should read this book. If you cannot imagine how church wounds people, you should read this book. It is profound, compassionate, and—sadly—timely.

If the church is going to become what she was designed to be, women must be at equal places of responsibility, authority, and influence in all spaces. If there has ever been a time to write a better story—a tov story—it is now! The broken stories in this book offer a beautiful transformational pathway forward. I wish this book weren’t necessary, but it is imperative for leaders committed to integrity and creating a better future.

A Church Called Tov is a desperately needed book, full of eye-opening truths. The church is supposed to be, and can be, a place of goodness, not toxicity. Scot and Laura help us discern the difference. It is clear they have seen and understand both sides and therefore can serve as guides to help us see what is good and avoid what is evil. I hope this work spreads through every church.

In a time when scores of people who grew up in the church are walking away wounded, disillusioned, and understandably cynical about a culture that seldom reflects the Jesus it claims to love and follow, Scot McKnight brings us much-needed hope. He does this by helping the reader diagnose and explain what creates and fosters the toxicity that is so pervasive within our modern Christian culture. Fortunately, Scot doesn’t stop there. He follows up his diagnosis with an informed and practical wisdom that empowers and equips us cynics to understand how the church can actually become what it was created to be . . . the community of true health, safe refuge, and genuine hope for the weary and the wounded. In other words, the reflection of the Jesus. I’m grateful that A Church Called Tov helped me begin deconstructing my own cynicism about the church. Baby steps forward. Thanks, Scot!