Recently I was invited to Join Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program – in short, they send you a book, you review it. Simple. The link is at the end, and yes, it’s real. You get to choose the book from a selection of books and topics (no pressure, and no books you don’t want in other words), and the first book I got was this – the title intrigued me, so, I went for it.
So occasionally I will post a review here as I get through a book, but it won’t be frequent, and I promise to be honest….
Real Church by Dr Larry Crabb
Real church is an interesting book – a book that has two main focuses if you like. The first is that of its title – finding a ‘real church’ in our society. But it does this through its real message – one of specific challenges to our lives; things that we should be doing, and that if we all were – we would develop and become real church.
I am glad I persisted with this book – I admit I found the first few chapters a bit of a struggle – which are really Dr Crabb sharing his innermost heart about where he thinks our current ‘church’ society, especially in America, is at the moment. My problem may have been that I agreed with him already, and didn’t need half a book to get there…. Take my advice – persist. The second half of the book is a close look at what we as Christians could and should be doing to develop and be part of to become the ‘real church’ – less of a shopping list (which maybe was my expectation, especially after the first few chapters), and more of an action list – which in truth is what we need to hear. His summary of those things is excellent, and I will likely read it again in the future, as it does provide a good foundation for what we should be seeking in our lives.
My only gripe with the book is again in the first section – to me it seemed a little critical and direct to area’s that maybe didn’t deserve to be generalised to (eg, he takes a shot at specific ‘movements’). But as I mentioned, make sure you get through it, and get to part 2 – that is where the real meat of this book is.
So in summary? More a spiritual foundations book to challenge yourself, but well worth the read! Certainly comes recommended, and came at a time for me that was both needed and relevant.
I reviewed this book as part of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program – find out more at http://brb.thomasnelson.com/
You can find out more about this book at the Thomas Nelson page -
http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=0785229205&title=Real%20Church
