As I said recently, I love the church. In my journey of increasing passion for Christ’s bride, I have been helped by numerous writers who have stimulated my thinking towards godly and biblical thoughts about the church. We need preeminently the Word of God to shape our think on all things; but we are wise to listen to sermons and read commentaries and seek the counsel of wise friends to confirm and clarify our thinking and understanding of Scripture.
You too have an opinion of the church. Maybe you love it passionately or maybe your love is something less than that; maybe it is growing and maybe it is waning. Here are several writers that I have found particularly helpful in thinking about the role of the church. Whether your love is increasing or declining, you will be well-served by reading one or more of these books.
Brothers, You are Not Professionals: John Piper is one of my favorite writers. I think he is particularly effective when he writes on the passion for God, biographies of those who love Christ, marriage, and ministry. This is his best work on the final topic in that list. In a series of 30 devotionals (read one-a-day for a month), he calls pastors to a life of sacrificial ministry.
Stop Dating the Church: This short but powerful book challenges believers today to take the church seriously — by committing to a local body of believers. John MacArthur states: “Instead of asking what they can give or how they can serve, too many churchgoers are only interested in what they can get. The church deserves far more than the half-hearted commitment or apathetic neglect it so often receives. In fact, as Harris astutely observes, the Christian life can never be lived to its fullest apart from a genuine passion for the church. It’s time for believers to take the church seriously, which is why the message of this book is so essential.”
Why We Love the Church: The latest work by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck offers a passionate plea to love the bride of Christ — “[your] wife may be a lying, no good, double-crossing, poor excuse for a wife, but if she’s your wife, you’ll protect her honor, whatever may be left of it. And woe to the friend who…rolls his eyes and sighs every time your wife walks into the room…Apparently, some people imagine Jesus wants friends like that. They roll their eyes and sigh over the church.”
What is a Healthy Church?: Not too many know the answer to that question. Mark Dever (in a synthesis of his longer work, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, offers nine answers. We do well to know those answers and look for them and work for them in our churches.
What is a Healthy Church Member?: If there are universal characteristics of healthy churches, so there are characteristics of healthy members. A companion volume to Dever’s work, they are both beneficial reading.
Words of Grace 