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Percy, Martyn. 2021.

The Humble Church: Renewing the Body of 
Christ

Norwich: Canterbury Press.

isbn: 978-0-19-067364-2

Reviewed by Kristine Stache
Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, IA 
kstache@wartburgseminary.edu

Martyn Percy, a former Dean of Christ’s Church who spent years teaching at 
Oxford University, provides for readers in this, his most recent book, an alter-
native way of thinking about ecclesiology in response to the current state of the 
Church and the world. The Church, he states, “often lacks strategic patience, 
and is too keen to react rather than reflect” (xv). Percy utilizes a missiological 
lens to shape his ministerial and academic work and centers his ecclesiology on 
who God is and what God has and continues to do in Christ. Jesus is “the actual 
expression of God-in word, deeds, actions, silences, walking being-of what God 
is doing” (2). This starting point of who God is provides for Percy a way for the 
church to “see the world differently, and therefore ourselves and our neighbours 
in a fresh light” (xxviii).

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The Humble Church: Renewing the Body of Christ is an interesting blend of 
a wide variety of ingredients. Percy uses grammar to make a Christological case 
for a missional ecclesiology (“Jesus is the verb of God” (2)), and throws poetry 
and a bit of math in for good measure (“to be a church of multiplication, not 
division” (4)). From the beginning, Percy invites the reader to “allow God to 
resume God’s place in our life, faith, and world” (xviii), which ultimately leads 
to the renewal of the body of Christ.

Percy covers a lot of territory in less than 200 pages (almost too much). 
After an introductory chapter that sets the stage for using humble as a preferred 
word to describe the church, Percy organizes his argument into three sections, 
each with three chapters, and ends the book with a bonus study guide for groups 
or individuals. He then closes it with additional resources and further reading.

In the first part of the book, titled Culture and Change, Percy provides a 
critique of the church growth movement, making a case that the church must 
move from a focus on increasing numbers to becoming counterculture. Growth 
and mission (and thus the renewal of the body of Christ) for Percy are more 
akin to farming, and the flourishing of the seeds (26). “The church does not 
exist to grow. It exists to glorify God and follow Jesus Christ” (26). Counting 
and numerical growth are not the way to measure the church. Instead Percy 
asks us “to see as God sees, count as God would count … all matter” (45). It is in 
this flourishing of mutual relationships that we create a co-dependency on one 
another. “We are invited to humble ourselves and recognize our mutual depen-
dencies” (56). In this process all are included and we continue to be shaped and 
formed into the body of Christ.

The second part of his book, Challenge and Church, Percy sketches the 
ever-changing landscape that continues to shape Christian beliefs and practices 
(63). The first chapter of this section focuses on generational differences, the 
second proposes appropriate responses to abuse by clergy and those in author-
ity, and the third chapter identifies discrimination practices based on race, 
gender and disability and how they continue to prevent the church from flour-
ishing. The challenge I found with his addressing so many huge, yet important, 
topics is they get lost (almost trivialized) with such a cursory introduction and 
left this reader craving more explicit connections to his proposal for the Church 
to be humble Church.

Christ and Christianity, the third section of the book, lays out a theological 
argument for the church as an inclusive body for all. “Jesus is an expression of 
God’s heart for humanity. He is the body language of God. The Kingdom for all” 
(113). This then shapes mission and evangelism in a humble church as one that 
has historically “listened deeply and lived its faith, faithful and unassumingly, 



Kristine Stache—The Humble Church

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rather than brashly promoting its brand” (121). The church’s response as a lis-
tener then leads to kenosis, to be come a “self-emptying church” (140). In order 
to do this we all must take on “the vocation of humility” (143) argues Percy.

Percy’s critique of the Church and Church structures is neither surprising 
nor new. While his argument for a humble Church has potential, his chapters 
are a bit too disconnected to make a case for the Church to be more than just 
a listening community. Percy’s work on the missio Dei is spot on, recognizing 
God’s activity in and through the world to and through the church, however 
its connection back to the role of the humble church remains a bit fuzzy. If one 
agrees that we are called to be the “Verb of God”, then listening is merely the 
starting point. Humbleness and humility are not merely postures but actual 
lenses to interpret the listening and action.

This book, I believe, could be a good conversation starter for groups 
that care deeply about the relationship the church has with the world. Such 
conversations could take Percy’s insights and ideas to push, pull and interpret 
further. Listening and reflecting is ultimately about learning. I think Percy him-
self would agree. “We cannot know everything, and nor should we assume we 
can. Which is why a humble, grounded church that listens, and is receptive and 
adaptive, is the key to the church recovering its vocation, and revitalizing its 
mission” (10).




