Downsizing: Letting Go of Evangelicalism's Nonessentials

by Michelle Van Loon

Evangelical Christianity has accumulated too many practices, habits, and trends that get in the way of authentic Christian faith. It's time to downsize.
 
Michelle Van Loon came to faith in Jesus as a Jewish teenager and embraced the first Christian community she evangelicals. Over the next fifty years, she enthusiastically worshiped and worked in a wide variety of evangelical groups. Looking back on those experiences today, Van Loon treasures the things that truly deepened her faith. At the same time, she laments the accumulation of baggage—religious ideas and practices that were unhelpful at best, and harmful at worst. Unlike many who have given up on evangelicalism altogether, Van Loon is committed to saving what's worthwhile in the evangelical faith tradition, and she invites others to join her. Simultaneously critical and hopeful, Downsizing encourages readers to reflect on their own experience with evangelicalism, evaluate the movement's legacy, and participate in shaping its future.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian

163 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 19, 2025

About the author

Michelle Van Loon’s Jewish heritage, spiritual hunger, and storyteller’s sensibilities have been informing her writing and shaping her faith journey since she came to Christ at the tail end of the Jesus Movement. She is the author of eight books, as well as numerous articles, and several full-length plays for the educational market.

She's been a church communications director, served on staff at Trinity International University, and been the U.S. Administrator for an educational ministry based in Jerusalem. She earned a graduate certificate from Northern Seminary in 2017. She's married to Bill, and is mother to three and grandmother to two.

Reviews

[Judy Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Downsizing: Letting Go of Evangelicalism’s Nonessentials by Michelle Van Loon is an expression of her unique perspective and exposure to both benefits and challenges, even abuse, in evangelical churches. I related to much of her experience as I imagine most readers will. She tells is like it is, which I appreciate, and says, “Much of this book reads like a lament, and indeed it is…But ultimately, lament is an expression of desire for a different future.” Amen.

I highly recommend Downsizing.

[Nitoy Gonzales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having a Jewish background and being part of different churches all through her life, Christianity Today's writer Michelle Van Loon has seen it all. She can easily say "Been there, done that" through church trends and fads her family experienced. This book shows that those things are not just CV fillers or stuff of conversation for family gatherings but a glimpse on how we Christians deals with our spirituality- excess and all. How is that possible?

This commendable book tells us to downsize our church and leave the non-essentials. From the Jesus movement, Messianic churches to charismatic groups Van Loon shows, that we can abandon things that stops us to became the believer that God calls us to be. Van Loons gift in writing really shines here, balancing from her life story, exploring Scriptures and commenting to certain blind spots of Christianity for the past 50 years. Leading the way to embrace the less than more, Van Loon wrote an engaging read and a narrative that hits home. You may not agree with some of the things she puts on this book, but her insights is something that you shouldn't ignore. Highly recommended!

My verdict:

5 out of 5

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: A memoir of a fifty-year evangelical journey and the unhelpful ideas and practices to be downsized to embrace an authentic faith.

Downsizing. Many at my stage of life are engaged in the practice of deaccumulating the stuff we’ve acquired over the decades. Some of it we no longer need. Some of it we wonder why we ever acquired. It may be the reality that a smaller living space cannot accommodate all our goods. Or we are aware that we are moving toward the final deaccumulation when all our earthly goods are dispersed.

Michelle Van Loon offers the metaphor of downsizing for what she sees is needed in evangelicalism today. In one sense, evangelicalism is downsizing as people head for the exits. For many of the disillusioned, this has meant a process of faith deconstruction, a re-evaluation of beliefs and practices. Some emerge from this with a re-framed faith. Others walk away altogether. Instead, Van Loon proposes the metaphor of downsizing as a kind of spiritual rummage sale, allowing an uncluttered, authentic faith to emerge. Indeed, citing spiritual writer Phyllis Tickle, she proposes that the church has gone through such a rummage sale every five hundred years, the last being the Reformation and counter-Reformation. We’re due.

Van Loon approaches this through the lens of a spiritual journey memoir over her fifty years as a Christ-follower. She came to faith out of a Jewish background during the waning days of the Jesus Movement. She introduces her journey as one where she:

“…immersed myself in fundamentalist faith, worshiped in Messianic Jewish gatherings, experienced the revivalism of second- and third-wave charismatic congregations, gathere in a living room for home church, experienced the rise of one of America’s most influential nondenominational megachurches, became part of the rising Anglican movement, and had pit stops along the way at other kinds of churches of all kinds, from a cult-like sect to a neo-Reformed outpost to a throwback mainline church that owned not one but two harpsichords in addition to its giant pipe organ” (pp. 3-4)

Her experience make her a well-qualified participant observer of the last fifty years of evangelical both at its best and worst. Her first couple chapters offer a brief history of evangelicalism, including the number of parachurch ministries that arose after World War Two. Each of the following chapters trace her journey through different movements. She offers a brief historical backdrop for each, setting them in context, describes her experiences, and the “downsizing” she engaged in as she moved on–the unhelpful practices and beliefs she left behind and the valuable truths and practices she carried.

Several things stood out to me in her narrative. One is the recurring danger of abusing leadership positions and spiritual authority. Examples include the Shepherding movements, Bill Gothard’s “Umbrella of Authority,” or the Mars Hill Church of Mark Driscoll. She also recounts the chaotic revivalism characteristic of some third wave charismatic churches, emphasizing experience over discipleship. Van Loon traces the rise of Dominionism, spiritual warfare theology, and the New Apostolic Reformation, and how they have wedded themselves to conservative political movements. She observes how “[T]he hunger for dominion is at the heart of so much bad practice in the church and has overflowed in the ways in which many self-identifying evangelicals express themselves in American culture” (pp. 139-140).

For Van Loon, downsizing expresses the downward journey of following Jesus, the journey to the cross. She invites us to purify ourselves of the blemishes of evangelicalism’s harmful beliefs to become Christ’s spotless bride. The issue is not the core beliefs of evangelicalism but the craving for power and control. This could be our kids’ purity or our nation’s institutions or other members of our congregations.

Van Loon is slightly younger than I am but we share common roots in the Jesus Movement. I remember the heady passion for Christ and hopes that our generation would change the world. We did, but not in the way of our youthful hopes. I did not experience some of the movements in which she participated. But a reflective look at this fifty plus year journey is a chastening experience and moves me to lament. We failed to reckon with the lures of money, sex, and especially power. Too often, we fixed our eyes on idols rather than our risen Lord. We cannot merely “downsize” these things. We must destroy idols or they will keep cropping up, as Van Loon’s account illustrates.

Perhaps the separating of an apostate, politically captive evangelicalism from smaller bands of believers seeking to follow Jesus in witness and service, pursuing his kingdom, is all a part of God’s downsizing. Van Loon calls us to a downsizing that is not an abandoning of faith but am embrace of single-hearted pursuit of Jesus, shedding all that encumbers. I hope I might live out my days in that kind of downsizing.

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

[Sharla Fritz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michelle Van Loon's book Downsizing is part memoir, part modern-day church history. She immediately drew me in with her quest for Christian fellowship and instruction as a young teen growing up as the only Christian in a Jewish family. I lamented along with her as faced disappointment and even abuse from members of various churches and organizations where she tried to find connection. But, I rejoiced that she did not give up-- choosing instead to continue her search for Christian fellowship.

This book offers a look back at the rise and fall of various church and parachurch organizations in recent history. In this day and age where many are questioning the value of the church and deconstructing their faith, it paints a truthful picture of where the church has failed but also provides hope and points out how each organization tried to fill a need. In a downsizing process, we can throw out what is harmful and keep what is good. I would recommend Downsizing to pastors and ministry leaders for a fresh perspective and to anyone questioning the value of belonging to a church. You will find hope here.

[John Dobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard for me to state how I feel upon finishing this book... I feel like I've been on a journey with Michelle Van Loon ... a journey through a turbulent and uncertain experience with faith and church. The engaging way in which she shares her journey through church abuse and disappointment really hurt my heart. But in all of the experiences that she shares, we do not see a rejection of Jesus nor the church as expressed by the Scriptures. However, the evangelical and charismatic church climates that created issues of distrust and rejection were painful. I think a signal that this book is well written is that all along the way I wanted to engage in conversation with the author! This is a read that covers the ongoing struggle of "deconstruction" under the banner of "downsizing", which ultimately is the work of "reformation". I found that even though she and her husband had been through some very difficult church problems - the expression of faith continued strong and I admire their journey very much. I can't say it was a "happy" read, but it certainly was a "rich" one.

[Dorothy Greco · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best, most accurate back cover blurbs ever! "Unlike many who have given up on evangelicalism altogether, Van Loon is committed to saving what's worthwhile in the tradition. ... Downsizing encourages readers to reflect on their own experiences with evangelicalism, evaluate the movement's legacy, and participate in shaping its future." That's exactly what the book does so well. Though Van Loon leans heavily on theology and history, the book is not academic. The author has been through many difficult church experiences in her 40+ years of following Jesus but somehow has managed to both avoid bitterness and maintain her faith. This is no small thing. She is a smart, trustworthy guide to lead us in this important conversation.

[Carole Duff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through personal experience and extensive research, Michelle Van Loon captures the recent and fraught history of evangelicalism in the United States. As I read the advanced review copy, I went from vague to well-informed awareness of a movement that through success often devours its congregants then its own. The solution: downsize, get back to the smaller version of church where people can know, care about and care for one another, as Jesus did. An excellent and important read.

[Tamara D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book that delves into the author’s personal experiences with evangelical churches over the years, experiences that were often less than positive. Being of a certain [clears throat] age, her likening leaving behind evangelicalism’s bad experiences to downsizing her home resonated. Although I am not in the world of evangelicalism, I have been a witness to the excesses and abuse of power that it seems to fall into all too often and the effects of that on society as a whole.

[Jenai Auman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Endorsed! Downsizing launches August 19, 2025.

[Thompson Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting