Customer Reviews

Becoming a True Spiritual Community: A Profound Vision of What the Church Can Be

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According to an online source, "Becomming a True Spiritual Community" is simply the republishing of "The Safest Place on Earth" under a new title. I read TSPoE, liked it, and was recently pleasantly surprised to find that Larry apparently had a new book coming out (Becomming). I almost bought it. Fortunately, before placing my order, I checked another online source for reviews and saw that Becomming is the same book as TSPoE. If you haven't read either book, I do recommend reading one or the other.

There is a growing sense among many within the church that there must be more. Futurists including George Barna suggest that there is a significant number of believers choosing to go underground in their faith --- forming home groups in an effort to foster the kinds of relationships that can't naturally happen during a few hours on Sunday morning.

In BECOMING A TRUE SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY, Larry Crabb addresses the heart issues behind the changes taking place in the church. He points out that most people who choose to follow Jesus assume that they'll find a spiritual community of friends, a kind of family that will enjoy each other's company as they encourage one another to spiritual maturity. More often than not, though, they are sorely disappointed. Though Christians hunger for a community of deep rich relationships, both new and veteran believers often find themselves frustrated that these kinds of connections don't happen naturally.

The relationships among believers often can be compared to a series of rocking chairs on a front porch lined up side by side. Though every seat may be filled and cordial dialogue exchanged, the real hunger in people's hearts is to have the chairs placed in a circle facing each other. In the same way, we long for our souls to be turned toward each other.

Rather than offer four magical steps or three quick ways to community, Crabb takes readers on a journey to explore the nature of life with the Trinitarian revelation as a backdrop for the longings of a relationship. He invites readers to turn the focus inward and examine the weaknesses that short-circuit their own ability to enter real spiritual community.

Crabb explains some of our core struggles with intimate relationships in the context of the Lower Room and the Upper Room. The Lower Room is the place of our own flesh --- where our passions for self, control, defining our own lives and performance tear us away from each other and who God designed us to be. This stands in dark contrast to the Upper Room, where the passion to worship, trust, grow and obey reshape and renew who we are to look more like Jesus. When we as individuals abide in the Upper Room, we are better prepared to partake of the true spiritual community God intended.

Crabb is incredibly vulnerable and honest about his own shortcomings throughout the book. He isn't afraid to look at his own failures, sins and faults in an effort to uncover our own. The transparency is refreshing and moving. Beyond being a brilliant thinker, he is also a great writer. His descriptions dance, and his insights pack a punch.

BECOMING A TRUE SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY is like a balm for those in the church who keep thinking There must be more. Crabb assures us that there is more --- much more --- but it's going to have to take intentional decisions and movement by every individual to get there. The journey isn't easy, but it's well worth it.

--- Reviewed by Margaret Oines

Great book on a subject that is dominated by disgruntled people with an axe to grind and a formula to follow. This is not that book. It is full of heart explanations and it is written with a humble spirit.

You won't walk away knowing how to have a spiritual community, but it will help you to know it when you see/feel it and possibly help you to try and be one who fosters such an organism.

I was blown away reading it. His vision of spirit/soul dynamics (what he refers to as the upper room and lower room) is so helpful and is so under-understoon or referenced in Christianity these days.

I give it two thumbs up, or however we rate things here. I immediately bought another copy to give away.

but it would certainly be worth the effort. The thing is, it would require quite a bit of effort; and I haven't met a lot of people who would be willing to do the work to make this happen.

The good news is that there are some people who are willing and that's enough to start. The truth is, that it's just too easy to keep doing things the way they've always been done. Perhaps that's not entirely true. Church is work no matter how you do it, so why not do it right? And what Dr. Crabb provides here, is indeed the framework to do it right.

The only thing necessary is hungry hearts. So if you have one of those, get this book and read it.

By the way, this is exactly the same book as "The Safest Place On Earth" with a different cover. I do think this is a better title and more clearly reflects what this book is about. I have both books and even the page numbers are the same.

This book is written about community, but I found the thing that drew me in was his discussion about "animal and diabolical". This discussion is based on the evil that is found in humans. Some would be "animal" behavior, meaning things that everyone - even non-christians - sees as evil or "wrong", "bad", or "destructive". And then there is "diabolical" - the things that are common Christian behavior that is not easily recognizable as bad for us. Like being so busy that you neglect your children or mate, or being so passive that evil can exist, or other things that Christians would fight to the death as being okay in the name of "obedience to God" or "fulfilling what God has commanded" but they never will take a look at what their lifestyle is doing to others or the face of God it is presenting. Definitely something to take a look at. There is A LOT of diabolical going on in my life and in churches today! Take a look!

As it has often been the case, it is so again... I have fallen "head over heels" with the vision that is portrayed in this book, Becoming a True Spiritual Community. Over the past few years there has been something almost providential in the way books have come up on my "radar." The timing of where my thoughts and passions are running and the intersection of the subject matter of the book when it falls into my hands has occurred on more occasions than I can attribute to sheer coincidence. It is the case again with this book by Larry Crabb.

For forty years I have had an on-again-off-again relationship with the Christian Church that exists in North America. My primary experience has been with Protestant Evangelicalism, but my knowledge of the Christian church has extended beyond the boundaries of that circle in the most recent decade. What I have experienced in my forty years of churchianity has not been what I would describe as good and that experience of "not good" resulted in seasons where I danced intimately with the church and other seasons where there was no relationship at all. I accept the responsibility that is mine where my heart and my attitude were incompatible with the Christian church, but I can't help but think if the church were living up to the organism it is described in the Bible there may not have been the tension between us through the years... there may never have been a break in our relationship at all. I wonder...

So, what is it about this book, Becoming a True Spiritual Community: A Profound Vision of What the Church Can Be, that I find so wonderfully endearing? Before I answer that, let me point out that this is a republication of a book formerly published under the name of The Safest Place on Earth. As far as I have been able to discern, the books are the same. Now, back to the question, what is it about this book?

Becoming a True Spiritual Community ranks as one of the most honest assessments and characterizations of the American church that I have ever read. Saying this I must also clarify that there is no "church bashing" or vitriolic rhetoric that demeans the church. The words are honest and written from an attitude of love for the church, but they are candid, blunt, and revealing. As Crabb reveals some of the shallow façade supporting the contemporary church he does so with painfully honest self-examination that draws the reader into journeying inward to make similar examinations of their own spirituality... sometimes exposing our own shallowness, pride, ego, and selfish desires. This process of exposing and examination continues through part one and into part two of the book before the tide begins to turn and the hopeful beauty of the church and spiritual community that God desires for us is revealed. There are allusions to this hope in the first half of the book, but the crescendo builds to a gloriously hopeful ending beginning at the halfway mark around chapter nine.

The book is full of personal anecdotes and many metaphors gleaned from classic and contemporary literature from the disciplines of spiritual formation. There is also a very thorough discussion guide at the end of the book that would prove itself invaluable for a group study.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I'm sure timing has much to do with my excitement, but I also know that my desire for spiritual community as described by Dr. Crabb has been my passion for at least twenty-five years. I am reinvigorated and encouraged by what was written in this book and will recommend it as one of the top reads concerning the study of ecclesiology (the Church). I look forward to sharing the thoughts contained in this book with others and being a part of the communities that will be formed out of those discussions.

This book was selected for study for small group in the church. Lots of mumbo-jumbo, name dropping, jargon, and about 20 pages of nuggets worth reading, but buried in over 200 pages. Not a single member of our group thought it was worth even reading (let alone the 10 weeks we spent on it)