The Church at Its Worst and Best

"I just can't believe it, Dad.  Those people loved me for no other reason than that I needed to be loved."

"It's the church," I responded. I told her that when the church is functioning at its best, there is simply no community on earth that can rival it.  But when the church is functioning at its worst, there is no community on earth that can do as much damage.  History itself proves the point.  The church has served untold millions, as is evidenced by the number of churches, hospitals, orphanages, schools and relief agencies that Christians have founded and operated.  But the church has brutalized untold millions, too, as the medieval inquisition and the religious wars of the seventeenth century demonstrate. (p. 14)

 The problem is that we are often more like the world than like Christ.

The church is called to function as a body, as if it were a kind of incarnation of Christ in the world.  "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:13)....  Christ was the incarnation of God in the wold; the church is the incarnation of Christ. (p. 16)

Where do we begin to correct the problem?

The quality of relationships among Christians makes the church an effective witness for the gospel, for it creates the kind of community into which others are naturally drawn. (p. 17)

The New Testament issues a series of commands to show us how to develop these healthy relationships.  Called "mutuality commands" because they use the phrase "one another," these commands translate love into action, mitigate the tensions that inevitably surface among Christians, and mollify the differences among believers so that, instead of suspicion, conflict and division the church models trust, harmony and unity.  They enable the church to become a community of love. (p. 20)

Gerald Sittser, Love One Another: Becoming the Church Jesus Longs For (2nd ed., IVP, 2008).

The Church at Its Worst and Best

Book Suggestion: Life Within the Christian Community

Over the past few days I have been looking for a book to suggest to our Bible Study group that deals with the topic of community or getting along within the body of Christ.  As I searched my own bookshelves, various Christian websites, blogs that I follow, and online bookstores I found many titles that address the topic of the church's role in society.  The main thrust of these books seems to be how the church community ought to respond to and impact the surrounding culture.  Many of these books address the church's responsibility to the weak, the poor, and the outcasts of our communities.  Well, that's not exactly what I am looking for at this point.  Rather, I am seeking a book that looks inward first.  How are we to interact with one another within the church?

Yesterday evening my lovely wife was helping me look for titles and she found a book on my shelf that I received some time back from IVP as a review copy.  It is Love One Another: Becoming the Church Jesus Longs For by Gerald Sittser (2nd ed., IVP, 2008). I did not have the time to read and review this book although I remember that I did read the first few pages and skim through the Table of Contents.  In Love One Another, Sittser discusses the Christian community's "one-another" ministry.  As children of God we are commanded to love on another, forgive one another, bear with one another, encourage one another, comfort one another, and much more. These are the topics Sittser explores in this engaging and easy to comprehend book.  He also includes a discussion guide which makes this immediately useful for a small-group study.  Here is the Table of Contents:

Preface to the New Edition
1. The New Commandment
2. Welcome One Another
3. Be Subject to One Another
4. Forbear One Another
5. Forgive One Another
6. Confess Sin to and Pray for One Another
7. Serve One Another
8. Encourage One Another
9. Comfort One Another
10. Bear One Another’s Burdens
11. Stir Up One Another
12. Admonish One Another
Epilogue
Discussion Guide

Here's an excerpt, and here's a link to the endorsements.  Check it out. 



I just read through the first chapter and it is excellent!  Sittser even cites Bonhoeffer's Life Together a couple of times to support his argument for the centrality of Christ in Christian community. Bonhoeffer tackles the topic well, but I do have my reservations about some of his theology.  I'm disappointed that I could not find a review of Sittser's book on the internet.  Maybe this will be a start and I'll report back with more after I've read further.

Book Suggestion: Life Within the Christian Community

Christian Spirituality Throughout the Centuries: 2 New Books

Reading Paul Miller's A Praying Life (see here) has whet my appetite for finding and reading other books aimed specifically at growing the spiritual life. I usually turn to the Puritans for devotional works of this nature, although I recognize that there are plenty of capable contemporary authors available. I suppose the reason for this tendency is my fascination with Church history.

IVP Books has published two books that have caught my attention because they both draw upon Church history and deal with matters of spiritual growth. The first was published in late December of 2007: Gerald L. Sittser's Water from a Deep Well: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries. In a sense it is eclectic, drawing from the vast spectrum of Christianity throughout the centuries. Sittser sets out "to explore the diversity of Christian spirituality" (23) from the first century to the 21st century.

From the apostolic age to the present, the vast majority of Christians have believed that God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is both divine and human, and that God is therefore one in community. My goal is to explore how these various spiritual traditions--ascetic, monastic, sacramental, evangelical and the like--reveal who God is, how we can know him intimately, and what we can become in and through him. (23-24)

In other words, this is an introduction to the variety of expressions of living the Christian life in light of the ebb and flow of historical circumstances. I've been enjoying this; check it out.

Book Excerpts
Introduction: There Is More! »
1. Witness: The Spirituality of the Early Christian Martyrs »

IVP Extra!
Download a short biography of Gerald Sittser.
Download questions and answers with the author.

Table of Contents »
Reviews & Endorsements »
Features & Benefits »

The second book is a brand new addition to IVP's FORMATIO line of spiritual formation books: Richard J. Foster & Gayle D. Beebe's Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion (2009). This title goes a step further than the title above by introducing the reader to numerous individuals from Church history and there devotional reflections. In doing so the book is organized according to seven identifiable paths. The different paths are not exclusive from one anther, but rather, particular emphases to which Christians tend to drift: some more emotive, others more cognitive, etc. The paths are defined as such:

• Path One: The Right Ordering of Our Love for God (Origen, Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Blaise Pascal)
  
• Path Two: The Spiritual Life as Journey (Evagrius of Ponticus, George Herbert, John Bunyan, Thomas Merton)
  
• Path Three: The Recovery of Knowledge of God Lost in the Fall (Aquinas, Luther, Calvin)
  
• Path Four: Intimacy with Jesus Christ (Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure, Thomas á Kempis, Ignatius of Loyola)
• Path Five: The Right Ordering of Our Experiences of God (Julian of Norwich, George Fox, John Wesley, Friedrich Schleiermacher)
  
• Path Six: Action and Contemplation (John Cassian, Benedict of Nursia, Gregory the Great)
  
• Path Seven: Divine Ascent (Pseudo-Dionysius, The Cloud of Unknowing, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross)
  

As you can see, the list here is also eclectic. Some may object to discussing one or more of the names, but as it stands, it is interesting to observe how distinctive these groups are. It makes me consider which path I lean toward the most, and what I could (or should) learn from the other groups.

So far, I am thoroughly enjoying this introduction to the spiritual struggles of each of these figures from Church history. It has been very informative. Here are some details about the book:

Book Excerpts

Preface »
Introduction »
Part One: The Right Ordering of Our Love for God »

IVP Extra!

Download an author bio sheet about Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe.
Download a book excerpt from Longing for God.
Download a Q & A with the authors of Longing for God.

Table of Contents »
Reviews & Endorsements »
Features & Benefits »

Christian Spirituality Throughout the Centuries: 2 New Books