Paul Luckraft interviews the author of ‘Mere Churchianity’.

In October 2018, we reviewed John Hampton’s book Mere Churchianity, a critique of what ‘church’ has become over the centuries and an explanation of the growing phenomenon of genuine born-again believers who have moved to the fringes of traditional expressions of church (or abandoned them altogether) in order to be more effective as followers of Jesus.

At the time the book struck me as one of the best of its kind: an astute analysis of the issue, expertly written with a touch of humour. I very much wanted to meet the author to find out more about him and how the book came to be written.

However, arranging a meeting with John wasn’t going to be straightforward as he currently teaches Maths at an international school in Germany. Eventually, we found some time during one of his brief visits to this country and a fascinating conversation took place, during which we discovered that we had many things in common.

On Fire for God

John comes across as a modest, even self-deprecating, person; he doesn’t advertise himself through the book as he prefers to remain behind the scenes. He described himself as having a strong sense of needing to be a ‘nobody’ in order to get the message across: he didn’t want to detract from the book itself or the Lord getting all the glory for it. Yet his personal story is actually integral to the book’s theme and an encouragement for others (doesn’t God usually look for ‘nobodies’?).

John was brought up in a tough area of Manchester and has a background in aeronautics, which remains a personal interest. He had no pretensions to be an author and pursued a career in teaching, largely abroad, including in Africa and Japan. It was this career path that contributed towards his spiritual journey.

Mere Churchianity struck me as one of the best books of its kind: an astute analysis of the issue, expertly written with a touch of humour.

In Japan John and his wife, Liz, met a small group of Christians who, despite not belonging to any church, demonstrated an on-fire love for God and Jesus that the couple had never encountered before. They enjoyed fellowship with these fellow believers for five or six years before returning to the UK, primarily as a result of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake.

Upon their return, John’s family re-joined a large charismatic fellowship on the south coast of England where they had been members 15 years before. But it didn’t take long for both he and Liz to realise that, compared to their experience in Japan, something was missing. This raised many questions in his mind: why were even the best churches in the West still so lacking in what the New Testament demonstrated? Why were even the most ‘renewed’ churches still so mechanistic and not ‘living the life’?

Lightbulb Moment

Troubled by this, John decided to make notes on his thoughts and record his experiences, in an effort to try and make sense of things. It was during this period that he describes having a ‘lightbulb moment’, when he suddenly saw what was fundamentally wrong: church had become ‘a thing in itself’.

This was in 1997, and did not come about by reading what others had written – rather, through prayer and observation. However, as John started to share this with others, they pointed him in the direction of other books which he began to read (including Stan Firth’s ‘Custom and Command’). To John’s relief, these confirmed what God had shown him. He had not gone mad! The Body of Christ was indeed being stunted by the Church repeatedly having become a self-supporting enterprise.

A Forced March

As John continued to write and organise his ideas, he realised that there was enough material to write a book, even though he had no authorship experience. So, how would this work out?

By 1999 the first draft was ready and a chapter plus outline was sent to some publishers. The reply was that it was a good effort and a possible book, but try elsewhere! Encouraging, but no progress. Perhaps God was saying ‘not yet’ rather than ‘no’?

Why are even the best churches in the West still so lacking in what the New Testament demonstrates?

A year later, John and his family relocated to Germany and the book was put on hold. Then God stepped in again, this time through a chat with some friends. The impetus was back. This (2007) seemed to be the right time to take it up again, but with the demands of a full-time teaching job and family life, plus efforts by the enemy to stall the project, this was not to be an easy process. John describes it as a ‘forced march’ over nine years. But this time it would happen.

The book finally came out via Amazon CreateSpace in 2016, as Flatlining, then in 2017 under the new (improved!) title of Mere Churchianity. John still does not think of himself as an author - but he has produced a thoroughly worthwhile book through inspiration, dedication and, perhaps most importantly, his own personal experience.

Read our review of Mere Churchianity by clicking here.