[Note: I'm gonna just let this one speak for itself, because I didn't write it. This is James Martin's article, and I'll comment on it on Facebook as people share their thoughts.]

Hi Jonah! My name is James Martin. Graduated UNC in May and attended the Summit for 4 years. I am fascinated by church culture and found your Odyssey article intriguing. I wanted to engage you in conversation, as you requested. I too want to see change in churches. I want to address some of your valid concerns and, if anything, strengthen your argument by meeting you with some contesting viewpoints that you are likely to hear as you continue this conversation.

I appreciate your courage in calling out such an influential institution, it is wise to be vigilant over large religious interests since they are becoming more powerful. It is true that power can easily lead to corruption, thanks for being a watchdog to holding Christianity to what you believe it is about. Since your beef with the Summit is that it isn’t doing what Jesus or the New Testament teaches, I will meet you on the grounds of excerpts from the four gospels and epistles in the New Testament.

While I’m sure there are more, I noticed 3 primary qualms you had with the Summit’s “first-rate, God-tier bullshit.” Public prayer, corporate spiritual experiences, and lack of social justice work. I want to address these and offer challenges because you are partly right with each of them, yet I suggest the inconsistencies you perceive between the Summit and the Scriptures are not as black and white as you propose.

1. Prayer.

Jesus did command his followers to pray in private (Matt 6:6), and let their words be few (Matt 6:7). I have observed a lot of services with run-on prayers trying to sound lofty and spiritual. I catch myself doing it often, a guilty perpetrator of this trend. I want to appear spiritual, but prayer should be about being honest with God and admitting your need for him. Thank you for that reminder.

While affirming private faith, Jesus was no stranger to public exercise of it before crowds. The account of his saying these words on prayer happened in his famous Sermon on the Mount, the longest recorded sermon of Jesus. He demonstrated how to pray before an enormous crowd, which is where we get the tradition of the Lord’s prayer (Matt 6:9-13). Each of the four gospels (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15) records him feeding the “5000” (which was really 15-20k b/c they didn’t count women and children then b/c patriarchal society crap) he blesses the food, giving thanks to God before roughly the undergraduate population at UNC. He prayed during his crucifixion, with many gathered around saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) In light of this, it seems Jesus was calling against religious people praying to be thought impressive instead of praying out of a need for God.

It is about the motive. In the matter of public prayer, the question is, was the Summit praying for the girl being sent to Asia to show that they were impressive, or to demonstrate that they needed God’s help since she could not succeed on her own?

2. Sensationalized corporate spiritual experiences.

Many Christians would agree with you on this one. When I attended, having the music come in during the end of JD Greear’s sermons would bug me. It felt so brainwashy and was distracting. I thought much over this and eventually asked myself, if the role of the Summit is to present the truth of God, do lights and sound overtly negate those? It would be an issue if Sunday church was the only experience Christians had with God, since it helps some focus on the divine, but prevents others from doing so. Christians, however, are often encouraged by staff at the Summit to build habits of personal study and prayer, experiencing God throughout the week. Furthermore, JD has from the pulpit encouraged people who don’t vibe with the Summit to find church communities that fit them stylistically. I have friends who did so accordingly, changing to Vintage 21, Love Chapel Hill, or Chapel Hill Bible Church.

You mentioned the church program not hearing Jesus’ urge for privacy when lining up lots of people for baptism. I see why that feels slimy for you, it can feel like emotional manipulation, pushing people to make this decision to follow Jesus, publicly declaring it via baptism, no going back now, instead of letting them figure out and decide on their own.

This bothered me, so I read the New Testament to see how it really happens. I saw that Jesus did tell his disciples to baptize (Matt 28:16-20), people would desire to follow Jesus and even ask to be baptized (Acts 8:36-38), also Jesus oversaw numerous public baptisms in his early ministry (John 3:22). John the Baptist’s disciples were even jealous of how many people were getting baptized by Jesus’ disciples (John 3:26). In an account of the early church, after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, Peter preaches a sermon and 3000 people become Christians and are baptized (Acts 2:41). It might feel manipulative, but historically this is how it often happens when people are inspired by the god of Jesus.

3. Lack of social justice work.

I reference your quote of JD saying that people should “rest in the comforts” of Jesus’ finished work. Where you are right here is that there is a culture of spiritual consumerism that has infested the church. People just show up and don’t care about social justice during the week. Jesus was against this type of living (The Good Samaritan Luke 10: 25-37). This is not something the Summit condones from the pulpit. I will first address what the pastor meant, then how the church refutes passivity. When JD said “resting in the comforts of Jesus’ finished work” he was referring to the finished spiritual work of restoring people to God. Many religions profess that God’s favor must be earned. You do good things so God is happy with you.

But if God’s standard is actual perfection nobody could measure up, since everyone is flawed (Romans 3:23). In Christianity, Jesus took the penalty for everyone’s brokenness so we don’t have to do a bunch of stuff to earn God’s favor anymore, we just have to 1. Admit that Jesus gets to define what’s right and wrong, and 2. Believe that he was raised from the dead. Sorry to get preachy, but JD was saying that Christians aren’t under any law, but freedom in Jesus. “Shall we sin, because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid.” (Romans 6:15) This means that Christians should do good in the world not as a “please” to God, but as a “thank you.”

Again, it is about the motive. If it’s any indication as to how the Summit is engaging with the community, here is the link to their service page (including single moms, refugees, homeless people, sex slaves, among others):

https://summitrdu.com/outreach/local/serve365/

Anybody who has attended for a while will tell you that historically, the Summit is not your church if you want to be comfortable as a Christian. Every service is concluded with “you are sent,” which means that the people who go to the Summit and claim to follow Jesus are sent out into the world to care for the poor and share his love. I think the quote you heard was magnified since you are wary of social laziness as a problem in Christianity. I agree and your instinct is spot on.

However, it seems that the Summit refutes that idea by its programs and teachings. “Freed from the Law, for the Law”

Thank you again for holding this church to what you perceive to be the faith it professes. I know plenty of people who are Christians who are turned off by the Summit’s style of worship and baptism. I do not blame them, but I have yet to see a strong claim that the Summit is against Jesus’ original mission for people experiencing God as revealed in the New Testament text. I would love to hear more qualms if you have them, I do not intend for this to be a final word but a statement in a conversation. Hopefully this usefully addressed some of your concerns.