The Casual Christian Author:Craig Olson The Christian church is in a state of decline. It has replaced Biblical truth and divine authority with a pseudo-scientific view of origins, moral relativism, commitment to a political philosophy that denies God, a perspective of history that trivializes the roles of men and women of faith, a capitalistic vision of the church that equates size a... more »nd prosperity with success, and a mistaken notion of the relationship between faith and public policy that rules out Christian activism. A creeping professionalism has taken the role of ministry out of the hands of regular believers and placed it into the hands of formally trained clergy and a group of elite religious experts. In The Casual Christian, author Craig Olson takes a look at modern church practices and contemporary Christian ministry through the lens of apostolic practices. He shows how biblical teaching has simply been set aside in preference for the prevailing practices and values of a secular culture. Studying the church from the Pentecost through the Great Revival, Olson found the way Christians did church then differs a great deal from the way they do it today. In The Casual Christian, Olson reaches out to those who are disillusioned with today's church. Based on historical Christian practices, he suggests ways to revitalize the church and make it relevant to the times in which we live.« less