This book is a wake up call for Adventist pastors and administrators who have in some way been involved with the church-growth movement in North America and in other parts of the world. That has resulted in what is known today as mega-churches (they have an average of 2,000 worshipers every week) and giga-churches (those with 10,000 or more worshipers). Many Adventist ministers and even administrators, sincerely interested in the growth of our church, have been using the methods employed by the church-growth movement without realizing the potential dangers inherent in the system. According to Mostert, we are now realizing that it is impossible to separate the theology of the movement from its methodology for church-growth. He argues that the incursion of the movement into Adventism has resulted in a de-emphasis of our distinctive truths and mission and in the marketing of religious services in order to please our church members and to attract outsiders. He makes reference to pastors who have publicly stated that they no longer preach Adventist distinctive truths, because they are a hindrance to the growth of the church.

Mostert goes on to argue that what we have in the modern church-growth movement is veiled spiritualism. By allowing the movement to influence Adventist growth we have unintentionally made ourselves vulnerable to spiritualism. Veiled spiritualism is defined by him as that type of spiritualism that assumes a Christian identity and that blinds the eyes of people in such a way that the deception is not discerned. It denies the ultimate reality of death and defines sin as low self-esteem. The new birth is declared to be a change from a negative to a positive self-image. Self-esteem is the ultimate human value, all believers are one with Christ independent of their denominations, and believing in Jesus is all that is needed for salvation—its impact on your daily life is not important, because He always loves you. This type of spiritualism also emphasizes the rejection of the Sabbath commandment and preaches a sentimental gospel of a generic type that is not spiritually offensive to the sinful nature of those who listen to it.

Mostert demonstrates that this type of spiritualism characterizes the church-growth movement. He calls Adventist pastors to reconsider their association with the movement and insists that Adventists should continue to proclaim the message God entrusted to them without diluting it through the veiled spiritualism that is slowly engulfing the Christian world and that could lead to the end-time demonic deception predicted in the Scriptures. This is a book that every church pastor and leader should read. More work is needed in the study of the church-growth movement and on its potential damaging influence on the Adventist movement; but for now this is a good beginning.