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Growing Deeper
Church: Why Bother?
Why are there so many more professing Christians than churchgoing Christians? Is it because something is wrong with the church? Perhaps that's part of the picture. But Philip Yancey insists there is another part. In this candid, thought-provoking account, he reveals the reasons behind his own journey back from skepticism to wholehearted participation in the church, and weighs the church's human failings against its compelling excellencies as the body of Christ.
106 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 23, 1997
66 people are currently reading
519 people want to read
About the author
Philip Yancey
299 books2,400 followersA native of Atlanta, Georgia, Philip Yancey earned graduate degrees in Communications and English from Wheaton College Graduate School and the University of Chicago. He joined the staff of Campus Life Magazine in 1971, and worked there as Editor and then Publisher. He looks on those years with gratitude, because teenagers are demanding readers, and writing for them taught him a lasting principle: The reader is in control!
In 1978 Philip Yancey became a full-time writer, initially working as a journalist for such varied publications as Reader’s Digest, Publisher’s Weekly, National Wildlife, Christian Century and The Reformed Journal. For several years he contributed a monthly column to Christianity Today magazine, where he also served as Editor at Large.
In 2021 Philip released two new books: A Companion in Crisis and his long-awaited memoir, Where the Light Fell. Other favorites included in his more than twenty-five titles are: Where Is God When It Hurts, The Student Bible, and Disappointment with God. Philip's books have won thirteen Gold Medallion Awards from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, have sold more than seventeen million copies, and have been published in over 50 languages. Christian bookstore managers selected The Jesus I Never Knew as the 1996 Book of the Year, and in 1998 What’s So Amazing About Grace? won the same award. His other recent books are Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image; Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World; The Question that Never Goes Away; What Good Is God?; Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?; Soul Survivor; and Reaching for the Invisible God. In 2009 a daily reader was published, compiled from excerpts of his work: Grace Notes.
The Yanceys lived in downtown Chicago for many years before moving to a very different environment in Colorado. Together they enjoy mountain climbing, skiing, hiking, and all the other delights of the Rocky Mountains.
Visit Philip online:
https://www.philipyancey.com
https://www.facebook.com/PhilipYancey
Catch his monthly blog:
https://bit.ly/PhilipYanceyBlog
In 1978 Philip Yancey became a full-time writer, initially working as a journalist for such varied publications as Reader’s Digest, Publisher’s Weekly, National Wildlife, Christian Century and The Reformed Journal. For several years he contributed a monthly column to Christianity Today magazine, where he also served as Editor at Large.
In 2021 Philip released two new books: A Companion in Crisis and his long-awaited memoir, Where the Light Fell. Other favorites included in his more than twenty-five titles are: Where Is God When It Hurts, The Student Bible, and Disappointment with God. Philip's books have won thirteen Gold Medallion Awards from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, have sold more than seventeen million copies, and have been published in over 50 languages. Christian bookstore managers selected The Jesus I Never Knew as the 1996 Book of the Year, and in 1998 What’s So Amazing About Grace? won the same award. His other recent books are Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image; Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World; The Question that Never Goes Away; What Good Is God?; Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?; Soul Survivor; and Reaching for the Invisible God. In 2009 a daily reader was published, compiled from excerpts of his work: Grace Notes.
The Yanceys lived in downtown Chicago for many years before moving to a very different environment in Colorado. Together they enjoy mountain climbing, skiing, hiking, and all the other delights of the Rocky Mountains.
Visit Philip online:
https://www.philipyancey.com
https://www.facebook.com/PhilipYancey
Catch his monthly blog:
https://bit.ly/PhilipYanceyBlog
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
January 26, 2022
Church as "a space into which belief could flood" (21).
St. John of the Cross: "The virtuous soul that is alone...is like the burning coal that is alone. It will grow colder rather than hotter" (23).
"We tend to think of church as a kind of theater: we sit in the audience, attentively watching the actor onstage, who draws every eye to himself. If sufficiently entertained, we show our gratitude with applause and cheers. Church, though, should be the opposite of the theater. In church God is the audience for our worship. Far from playing the role of the leading actor, the minister should function as something like a prompter, the inconspicuous helper who sits beside the stage and prompts by whispering. What matters most takes place within the hearts of the congregation, not among the actors onstage. We should leave a worship service asking ourselves not, 'What did I get out of it?' but rather, 'Was God pleased with what happened?'" (24-5).
"Church exists primarily not to provide entertainment or to encourage vulnerability or to build self-esteem or to facilitate friendships but to worship God; if it fails in that, it fails. I have learned that the ministers, the music, the sacraments, and the other 'trappings' of worship are mere promptings to support the ultimate goal of getting worshipers in touch with God" (25).
When a community forms around what it holds in common (e.g., Jesus): "A family of God emerges, one in which unity does not mean uniformity and diversity does not mean division. How easily we forget that the Christian church was the first institution in the history of the world to bring together on equal footing Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free" (30).
"Now when I look for a church...I deliberately seek a congregation composed of people not like me" (31).
Archbishop William Temple: "The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members" (31).
Evangelist Luis Palau: "The church is like manure. Pile it together and it stinks up the neighborhood; spread it out and it enriches the world" (33).
"Our need to give is every bit as desperate as the poor's need to receive" (33).
"If only our churches could communicate grace to a world of competition, judgment, and ranking--a world of ungrace--then church would become a place where people gather eagerly without coercion, like desert nomads around an oasis. Now, when I attend church, I look inward and ask God to purge from me the poisons of rivalry and criticism and to fill me with grace. And I seek out churches characterized by a state of grace" (33-4).
"The church is a culmination, the realization of what God had in mind from the beginning. The Body of Christ becomes an overarching new identity that breaks down barriers of race and nationality and gender and makes possible a community that exists nowhere else in the world...Church is the place where I celebrate that new identity and work it out in the midst of people who have many differences but share this one thing in common. We are charged to live out a kind of alternative society before the eyes of the watching world, a world that is increasingly moving toward tribalism and division" (38).
Eugene Peterson: "The church is composed of equal parts mystery and mess" (45).
In "India, where only three percent of the population call themselves Christian, nearly a third of the healthcare is provided by Christians" (57).
"The church is a place where we can bring our pain, for it was founded by One whose body was broken for us, in order to give us life" (59).
"Under law, my destiny rides on everything that I do...[Under grace], we do not have to achieve but merely follow Jesus. He has already earned for us the costly victory of God's acceptance. As a result, church should not be one more place for me to compete and get a performance rating. Like a victorious locker room, church is a place to exult, to give thanks, to celebrate the great news that all is forgiven, that God is love, that victory certain" (66-7).
"We humans cause God great pain, yet God remains passionately involved with us. Should I not have something of that same attitude toward the church around me?"
Ministry as "a precarious balance between hypersensitivity and emotional callous" (72): "Sometimes a person in ministry needs the fine skill of a surgeon, for the repair of human souls can require more sensitivity than the repair of human bodies. At other times the person in ministry, overburdened, short of resources, besieged by unsolvable problems, needs a layer of callous" (75).
"Sometimes the only meaning those of us in ministry can offer suffering people is the assurance that their suffering, which has no apparent meaning for them, has meaning for us" (78).
"We tend to focus on the objects of ministry...Yet as I read the New Testament, Jesus seems equally interested in what effect the ministry is having on the people who are doing the work of ministry themselves...Evidently, what was happening inside the disciples was as important to Jesus as anything they had accomplished on the outside" (80-1).
"Jesus' most often-repeated declaration in the Gospels is that we find our lives by losing them. We lose them best in service to others" (83).
Helmut Thielicke: "Though the burden of the whole world lay heavy upon [Jesus'] shoulders...He has time to stop and talk to the individual...For [he knows] all time is in the hands of his Father...For God's faithfulness already spans the world like a rainbow: he does not need to build it; he needs only to walk beneath it" (95).
"C.S. Lewis wrote that God 'seems to do nothing of Himself which he can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye.' There is no greater illustration of that principle than the church of Jesus Christ, to which God has delegated the task of embodying God's presence in the world... Yes, the church fails in its mission and makes serious blunders precisely because the church comprises human beings who will always fall short of the glory of God. That is the risk God took" (98-9).
St. John of the Cross: "The virtuous soul that is alone...is like the burning coal that is alone. It will grow colder rather than hotter" (23).
"We tend to think of church as a kind of theater: we sit in the audience, attentively watching the actor onstage, who draws every eye to himself. If sufficiently entertained, we show our gratitude with applause and cheers. Church, though, should be the opposite of the theater. In church God is the audience for our worship. Far from playing the role of the leading actor, the minister should function as something like a prompter, the inconspicuous helper who sits beside the stage and prompts by whispering. What matters most takes place within the hearts of the congregation, not among the actors onstage. We should leave a worship service asking ourselves not, 'What did I get out of it?' but rather, 'Was God pleased with what happened?'" (24-5).
"Church exists primarily not to provide entertainment or to encourage vulnerability or to build self-esteem or to facilitate friendships but to worship God; if it fails in that, it fails. I have learned that the ministers, the music, the sacraments, and the other 'trappings' of worship are mere promptings to support the ultimate goal of getting worshipers in touch with God" (25).
When a community forms around what it holds in common (e.g., Jesus): "A family of God emerges, one in which unity does not mean uniformity and diversity does not mean division. How easily we forget that the Christian church was the first institution in the history of the world to bring together on equal footing Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free" (30).
"Now when I look for a church...I deliberately seek a congregation composed of people not like me" (31).
Archbishop William Temple: "The church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members" (31).
Evangelist Luis Palau: "The church is like manure. Pile it together and it stinks up the neighborhood; spread it out and it enriches the world" (33).
"Our need to give is every bit as desperate as the poor's need to receive" (33).
"If only our churches could communicate grace to a world of competition, judgment, and ranking--a world of ungrace--then church would become a place where people gather eagerly without coercion, like desert nomads around an oasis. Now, when I attend church, I look inward and ask God to purge from me the poisons of rivalry and criticism and to fill me with grace. And I seek out churches characterized by a state of grace" (33-4).
"The church is a culmination, the realization of what God had in mind from the beginning. The Body of Christ becomes an overarching new identity that breaks down barriers of race and nationality and gender and makes possible a community that exists nowhere else in the world...Church is the place where I celebrate that new identity and work it out in the midst of people who have many differences but share this one thing in common. We are charged to live out a kind of alternative society before the eyes of the watching world, a world that is increasingly moving toward tribalism and division" (38).
Eugene Peterson: "The church is composed of equal parts mystery and mess" (45).
In "India, where only three percent of the population call themselves Christian, nearly a third of the healthcare is provided by Christians" (57).
"The church is a place where we can bring our pain, for it was founded by One whose body was broken for us, in order to give us life" (59).
"Under law, my destiny rides on everything that I do...[Under grace], we do not have to achieve but merely follow Jesus. He has already earned for us the costly victory of God's acceptance. As a result, church should not be one more place for me to compete and get a performance rating. Like a victorious locker room, church is a place to exult, to give thanks, to celebrate the great news that all is forgiven, that God is love, that victory certain" (66-7).
"We humans cause God great pain, yet God remains passionately involved with us. Should I not have something of that same attitude toward the church around me?"
Ministry as "a precarious balance between hypersensitivity and emotional callous" (72): "Sometimes a person in ministry needs the fine skill of a surgeon, for the repair of human souls can require more sensitivity than the repair of human bodies. At other times the person in ministry, overburdened, short of resources, besieged by unsolvable problems, needs a layer of callous" (75).
"Sometimes the only meaning those of us in ministry can offer suffering people is the assurance that their suffering, which has no apparent meaning for them, has meaning for us" (78).
"We tend to focus on the objects of ministry...Yet as I read the New Testament, Jesus seems equally interested in what effect the ministry is having on the people who are doing the work of ministry themselves...Evidently, what was happening inside the disciples was as important to Jesus as anything they had accomplished on the outside" (80-1).
"Jesus' most often-repeated declaration in the Gospels is that we find our lives by losing them. We lose them best in service to others" (83).
Helmut Thielicke: "Though the burden of the whole world lay heavy upon [Jesus'] shoulders...He has time to stop and talk to the individual...For [he knows] all time is in the hands of his Father...For God's faithfulness already spans the world like a rainbow: he does not need to build it; he needs only to walk beneath it" (95).
"C.S. Lewis wrote that God 'seems to do nothing of Himself which he can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye.' There is no greater illustration of that principle than the church of Jesus Christ, to which God has delegated the task of embodying God's presence in the world... Yes, the church fails in its mission and makes serious blunders precisely because the church comprises human beings who will always fall short of the glory of God. That is the risk God took" (98-9).
November 17, 2021
I read this many years ago and it makes some really strong points for not giving up on the church. However, I think it needs an update for the church we see today.
November 15, 2023
For me, this book both struck a chord and fell a bit flat.
Yancey is a winsome and entertaining writer and has given us a good personal anecdote on what church is about and why it matters, and what church has done right and not done right. It is not as biblically grounded or theologically robust as it could be. Moreover, it felt detached from Christ (which seemed weird to me considering the Church is His bride).
I should point out that I probably wasn’t the target audience of the book. Also I wasn’t expecting Yancey to communicate valuable ideas through a string of various stories and analogies.
I also loved and greatly benefitted from Yancey’s insights (mostly in the last half of the book) — many of which are not being productively discussed in the church like they need to be.
For example, he pointed out how needy and hurting people who see their need for God feel alienated from church because most western churches aren’t admitting their neediness nor depending on Christ to fill what they lack. Yancey also shows us how these issues don’t doom the church but can be overcome — and even in churches where they aren’t being overcome, God still intends to use imperfect and struggling congregations to reveal something of who He is and what He’s done through Christ.
As someone who loves church, I’ve learnt a lot from this book and see new ways in which I can grow to better glorify God and live out His will on earth with His church.
Yancey is a winsome and entertaining writer and has given us a good personal anecdote on what church is about and why it matters, and what church has done right and not done right. It is not as biblically grounded or theologically robust as it could be. Moreover, it felt detached from Christ (which seemed weird to me considering the Church is His bride).
I should point out that I probably wasn’t the target audience of the book. Also I wasn’t expecting Yancey to communicate valuable ideas through a string of various stories and analogies.
I also loved and greatly benefitted from Yancey’s insights (mostly in the last half of the book) — many of which are not being productively discussed in the church like they need to be.
For example, he pointed out how needy and hurting people who see their need for God feel alienated from church because most western churches aren’t admitting their neediness nor depending on Christ to fill what they lack. Yancey also shows us how these issues don’t doom the church but can be overcome — and even in churches where they aren’t being overcome, God still intends to use imperfect and struggling congregations to reveal something of who He is and what He’s done through Christ.
As someone who loves church, I’ve learnt a lot from this book and see new ways in which I can grow to better glorify God and live out His will on earth with His church.
August 31, 2020
Philip Yancey is an author that walks through the flames of his own doubt and feelings as a Christian. He is not an individual that serves you a book full of christianisms. He talks about the rejecting his church for hypocrisy. I love his honestly and description of his journey. He writes to encourage thought.
January 15, 2025
Read this book a while ago and felt I needed to read again. I now would disagree with the phrasing of some things much more than I would have when I read it last, but now having a year and more in between I love the heart behind this book and would definitely recommend if you are struggling with the concept of church and why it’s needed.
February 10, 2020
The truth is timeless, but the narrative is dated.
P.S. You know you're old when 20 years doesn't seem like such a long time, but wow, how culture changes!
P.S. You know you're old when 20 years doesn't seem like such a long time, but wow, how culture changes!
March 28, 2021
Really useful read as we come out of lockdown and start to engage with people both inside & outside the church..
January 9, 2024
Very good. A smaller book packed with challenges and answers. Something every minister, pastor or elder should read. No matter how small your role is in the church or your Christian ministry you should definitely read this.
June 24, 2022
Christianity is not a purely intellectual, internal faith. It can only be lived in community. Perhaps for this reason, I have never entirely given up on church.
—Philip Yancey
In a compact hundred pages, Yancey moves, challenges, and inspires in relating the reality of what church is. He captures a portrait of church as it is: not as a utopian colony of 'heaven on earth', or an army terrible with banners, but simply church — warts and all — under the magnifying glass. (Particularly memorable was a series of anecdotes from communion, recounted: complete with flying football, indecent exposure, and unholy laughter.)
Yet, despite (or perhaps, because of) the fact that church can't seem to get itself together, what comes through, again and again, is grace. If community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives (Nouwen), then it is precisely in negotiating the dynamics of these relationships (in all their absurdity!) that God's other-worldly grace shines the brightest.
With sparkling metaphor and earthy, flowing prose (including an extended meditation on the travails of living with a bunion and blister on his own left big toe), Yancey captures the rhythms of grace in the life in community, alternating between hypersensitivity and callousness. This was a welcome addition: leaving me not only with an expanded vision of what church is, but how, in light of that, to live faithfully in community.
No sooner did I finish this book was I, checking the messages on my phone, reminded of the feelings (confession: more menacing than mere innocent curiosity) that led me to pick this book up in the first place. Church is messy because human relationships are messy. Out on the open ocean, I've always glimpsed with not a little envy, from my own vessel, other ships cresting the horizon going full steam ahead. The temptation to jump ship, to go it alone daringly on a life raft, has always been present.
But the problem is not external to me: the eye cannot say to the hand, nor the head to the feet, "I don't need you!" In one sense the problem is that we are all messy creatures. In view of this, it is all the more amazing that for whatever reason, God now reveals himself in the world not through a pillar of smoke and fire, not even through the physical body of his Son in Galilee, but through the mongrel collection that comprises [the] local church and every other such gathering in God's name. For that reason alone, church is worth the bother.
—Philip Yancey
In a compact hundred pages, Yancey moves, challenges, and inspires in relating the reality of what church is. He captures a portrait of church as it is: not as a utopian colony of 'heaven on earth', or an army terrible with banners, but simply church — warts and all — under the magnifying glass. (Particularly memorable was a series of anecdotes from communion, recounted: complete with flying football, indecent exposure, and unholy laughter.)
Yet, despite (or perhaps, because of) the fact that church can't seem to get itself together, what comes through, again and again, is grace. If community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives (Nouwen), then it is precisely in negotiating the dynamics of these relationships (in all their absurdity!) that God's other-worldly grace shines the brightest.
With sparkling metaphor and earthy, flowing prose (including an extended meditation on the travails of living with a bunion and blister on his own left big toe), Yancey captures the rhythms of grace in the life in community, alternating between hypersensitivity and callousness. This was a welcome addition: leaving me not only with an expanded vision of what church is, but how, in light of that, to live faithfully in community.
No sooner did I finish this book was I, checking the messages on my phone, reminded of the feelings (confession: more menacing than mere innocent curiosity) that led me to pick this book up in the first place. Church is messy because human relationships are messy. Out on the open ocean, I've always glimpsed with not a little envy, from my own vessel, other ships cresting the horizon going full steam ahead. The temptation to jump ship, to go it alone daringly on a life raft, has always been present.
But the problem is not external to me: the eye cannot say to the hand, nor the head to the feet, "I don't need you!" In one sense the problem is that we are all messy creatures. In view of this, it is all the more amazing that for whatever reason, God now reveals himself in the world not through a pillar of smoke and fire, not even through the physical body of his Son in Galilee, but through the mongrel collection that comprises [the] local church and every other such gathering in God's name. For that reason alone, church is worth the bother.
August 8, 2009
As the daughter of a minister (my mom is a Southern Baptist children's minister, and I often felt I got the short side of the stick - she was available to all of God's children, it seemed, but not her own as I was growing up and the members of the congregation pushed her well beyond her job description) I very much related to much of what Yancey said in this short but invaluable little work.
He walks the fine line he is so adept at walking - he does not sugarcoat but at the same time he does not rob the church for what it is: the Bride of Christ, rightly understood, though made up of fallible and fallen people who should absolutely continue on, together, down the roads of life in community.
Read it for yourself and see what I mean, for it is a quick but inspiring read that will reaffirm your faith even if you didn't know you particularly needed the boost.
He walks the fine line he is so adept at walking - he does not sugarcoat but at the same time he does not rob the church for what it is: the Bride of Christ, rightly understood, though made up of fallible and fallen people who should absolutely continue on, together, down the roads of life in community.
Read it for yourself and see what I mean, for it is a quick but inspiring read that will reaffirm your faith even if you didn't know you particularly needed the boost.
April 15, 2014
Yancey's background was one of strict fundmentalism in Georgia. He rejected the narrowness and prejudices of the members and was away from the church for a number of years. It was years later when he heard preached and understood grace that he came back to appreciate the fellowship of local believers. One point that he made and I've often appreciated about my early church background was "the very strictness of fundamentalism kept me from deeper trouble." His main point seemed to be the freedom that God gives people, and even believers, to choose. "Jesus showed incredible respect for human freedom." "As I look around on Sunday morning at the people populating the pews, I see the risk God has assumed."
Eugene Peterson: "The church is composed ofequal parts mystery and mess."
Eugene Peterson: "The church is composed ofequal parts mystery and mess."
September 8, 2010
I tripped upon this book "accidentally and it really drew me to focus on the essentials of church and why it is worth the bother, almost no matter what.
October 18, 2021
This book gives me hope for finding a church community again.
June 11, 2018
Part of what inspired me to read more about this topic is that I keep running into believers who think that it's acceptable and okay to avoid attending church and getting plugged in. I can understand if someone is dealing with a major life illness that limits their abilities but I don't see any biblical support for such a dangerous view.
Here the author makes a good case for getting engaged in the local church. He does focus a lot on social outreach and social justice throughout this short book as a primary reason for church attendance. I think such reasons have a place in the church but is becoming increasingly overemphasized in churches that lean to the Left, theologically and politically. Perhaps this author leans that way himself. I don't know. Nevertheless, he has some insightful things to say about the importance of going to church.
A few quotes that stood out to me -
"Church exists primarily not to provide entertainment or to encourage vulnerability or to build self-esteem or facilitate friendship but to worship God. If it fails in that, it fails I've learned that the ministers, the music, the sacraments, and the other trappings of worship are mere promptings to support the ultimate goal of getting worshippers in touch with God and if ever I doubt this fact I go back and read the Old Testament which devotes nearly as much space to specifications for worship in the Tabernacle in the temple as the New Testament devotes to the Life of Christ."
"Many biblical heroes - Abraham, Joseph, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel went through trials much like Job's or Douglas's. For each of them, at times, the physical reality surely seem to present God is the enemy but each managed to hold on to a trust in God despite the hardships. In doing so, their faith moves from a contract faith - I'll follow God if he treats me well" to a relationship that could transcend any hardship."
"Yes, the church fails in its mission and makes serious blunders precisely because the church comprises human beings who will always fall short of the glory of God. That is the risk God took. Anyone who enters the church expecting perfection does not understand the nature of that risk or the nature of humanity. Just as every romantic eventually learns that marriage is the beginning, not the end, of the struggle to make love work, every Christian must learn that church is also only a beginning."
Here the author makes a good case for getting engaged in the local church. He does focus a lot on social outreach and social justice throughout this short book as a primary reason for church attendance. I think such reasons have a place in the church but is becoming increasingly overemphasized in churches that lean to the Left, theologically and politically. Perhaps this author leans that way himself. I don't know. Nevertheless, he has some insightful things to say about the importance of going to church.
A few quotes that stood out to me -
"Church exists primarily not to provide entertainment or to encourage vulnerability or to build self-esteem or facilitate friendship but to worship God. If it fails in that, it fails I've learned that the ministers, the music, the sacraments, and the other trappings of worship are mere promptings to support the ultimate goal of getting worshippers in touch with God and if ever I doubt this fact I go back and read the Old Testament which devotes nearly as much space to specifications for worship in the Tabernacle in the temple as the New Testament devotes to the Life of Christ."
"Many biblical heroes - Abraham, Joseph, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel went through trials much like Job's or Douglas's. For each of them, at times, the physical reality surely seem to present God is the enemy but each managed to hold on to a trust in God despite the hardships. In doing so, their faith moves from a contract faith - I'll follow God if he treats me well" to a relationship that could transcend any hardship."
"Yes, the church fails in its mission and makes serious blunders precisely because the church comprises human beings who will always fall short of the glory of God. That is the risk God took. Anyone who enters the church expecting perfection does not understand the nature of that risk or the nature of humanity. Just as every romantic eventually learns that marriage is the beginning, not the end, of the struggle to make love work, every Christian must learn that church is also only a beginning."
April 22, 2022
I think this is the first Philip Yancey book I have read. It's short and full of stories. It is a biographical account of how his views of the church have shifted through the years. He began completely committed to church as a young person only to grow disillusioned with it around his college years. He never rejected God formally but felt that the church fell so far short of the God he knew. Thankfully, he came back to the church and learned to appreciate the beauty of its frailty and God's love for it. These are some of the takeaways that I cataloged as helpful along the way:
-there is little room in the church for those without great need
-it is more blessed to give than receive but it's also more draining
-the church is for the outside world
-don't confuse disappointment with life for disappointment with God
-passion for ministry cannot be sustained without passion for God regardless of the results
I found each of these thoughts that Yancey shared at various points to be deeply thought-provoking and helpful. I especially appreciate his idea that the church is for the outside world. I am very excited about serving the Lord through my career, something that the church seems less enthused about at times based on what is highlighted as spiritually beneficial or mature. I want to inspire those in the workforce to see their work as a calling from God. Yancey helped me uncover another layer of how I can do that here.
-there is little room in the church for those without great need
-it is more blessed to give than receive but it's also more draining
-the church is for the outside world
-don't confuse disappointment with life for disappointment with God
-passion for ministry cannot be sustained without passion for God regardless of the results
I found each of these thoughts that Yancey shared at various points to be deeply thought-provoking and helpful. I especially appreciate his idea that the church is for the outside world. I am very excited about serving the Lord through my career, something that the church seems less enthused about at times based on what is highlighted as spiritually beneficial or mature. I want to inspire those in the workforce to see their work as a calling from God. Yancey helped me uncover another layer of how I can do that here.
May 21, 2018
This book provide the author's reflections on what a Christian church is, what it should be, and why Christians should still go to church even when a church isn't what it should be. Two things stand out to me in the author's reflections on what a church should be: 1) It is a place where people are accepted regardless of background and weaknesses. They are free to share their weakness with each other, build relationship with one another, and in the process receive support that help them grow together (I love how he made the analogy that the Christian church should be God's 12-step Alcoholic Anonymous group.); 2) It is a group of people who strive to serve the community, specifically those in need. The author encourages readers who are discouraged, whether at an imperfect church, or at the difficulties one may encounter when trying to serve the community. We are not yet what we should be, but God's heart for us is to practice, and practice makes perfect. The book is well-written, but easy to read (only 100 pages, with very relatable stories and analogies that illustrates his points).
July 14, 2019
Декому церква асоціюється з театром. Там мають бути комфортні місця, гарна сцена, цікава програма, хорога музика і хороші проповідники. Там не має бути дивакуватих відвідувачів, які б приносили дискомфорт відволікаючи від того, що відбувається на сцені.
Проте істинна церква більш схожа на травмпункт. Вона для усіх: здорових, хворих, дивакуватих, втомлених, бідних, багатих. Список можна продовжувати. З пацієнтами ми оприділились. Щодо лікарів, то в їх ролі виступають не тільки священослужителі, але й інші прихожани. Церква - це місце, де люди служать Богу і служать один одному, де приймають один одного таким, яким є і з любов‘ю перев‘язують рани, виправляють нерівності і тд.
Ми покликані бути чутливими до чужої болі, але водночас, маємо бути мудрими у цьому. Повністю посвячуючи себе у служіння людям зі складною долею і не дотримуючись певних правил, можна легко і надовго вигоріти. Важливо питати себе, на чому я більше зосереджений - на людській болі, чи на самій людині?
Книга про істинне призначення церкви. Про все дуже відверто і дуже актуально. Однозначно мастрід.
Проте істинна церква більш схожа на травмпункт. Вона для усіх: здорових, хворих, дивакуватих, втомлених, бідних, багатих. Список можна продовжувати. З пацієнтами ми оприділились. Щодо лікарів, то в їх ролі виступають не тільки священослужителі, але й інші прихожани. Церква - це місце, де люди служать Богу і служать один одному, де приймають один одного таким, яким є і з любов‘ю перев‘язують рани, виправляють нерівності і тд.
Ми покликані бути чутливими до чужої болі, але водночас, маємо бути мудрими у цьому. Повністю посвячуючи себе у служіння людям зі складною долею і не дотримуючись певних правил, можна легко і надовго вигоріти. Важливо питати себе, на чому я більше зосереджений - на людській болі, чи на самій людині?
Книга про істинне призначення церкви. Про все дуже відверто і дуже актуально. Однозначно мастрід.
February 20, 2023
I am a big fan of Phillip Yancey. I have enjoyed all the books that he has authored. This book was quite meaningful for me at the time I read it.
My wife and I are looking for a new church after being away for a while. We both read devotions and pray but have let our church attendance slide for many reasons. The pandemic shut down churches for a while and it became easier for us to not attend. Add to this, the church we attended became very political. I don't attend church to praise a certain party and its policies. I go to praise God. Banners were hung on the Church trumpeting social causes.
I wish there was a computer program in which you could answer questions about your beliefs and the results would be dispensed as to what church in your area would be best for you. However, a line from Yancey's book stays in my mind. The church isn't for our entertainment, it is for worshiping God with others.
My wife and I are looking for a new church after being away for a while. We both read devotions and pray but have let our church attendance slide for many reasons. The pandemic shut down churches for a while and it became easier for us to not attend. Add to this, the church we attended became very political. I don't attend church to praise a certain party and its policies. I go to praise God. Banners were hung on the Church trumpeting social causes.
I wish there was a computer program in which you could answer questions about your beliefs and the results would be dispensed as to what church in your area would be best for you. However, a line from Yancey's book stays in my mind. The church isn't for our entertainment, it is for worshiping God with others.
October 15, 2021
At only 100 pages, it was a fantastic and quick read. Exactly what I was looking for. Basic reminders about why church exists, what the point of it is, and why I should maybe think about going back after a season away. No scripture wielded as a weapon to make a person feel bad for being "disobedient" or not going to church. Scripture was thoughtfully cited and used to support statements about Jesus' character and his intentions for his followers to gather together. I walked away reminded that I'll never find a church that perfectly fits the picture of the ideal church that Jesus would've imagined or that I imagine I need or would like. But with a few key requirements in mind, I can find a church where I'm part of a community that's imperfectly trying every day to represent Jesus to the community it resides in, by who it lets in and not who it keeps out.
April 12, 2024
A small volume, perhaps more of a booklet, on a question that many are asking today -why church? It is an easy read peppered with more personal stories and analogies than with scripture. Yancey paints a picture of what the church should be like, a vision and model that we often fall far short of. Primarily, the church he envisions is a gathering of disparate and rag tag individuals united by their common bond to Jesus, dependent on each other and on God. The purpose of the church is to give glory to God and make Jesus known to the world, to serve the needs of those around and not to serve the members. It is messy and faltering, imperfect and quirky. But as one of my own mentors has said, Jesus loved the church- can I do less?
I found the last part of the book more an examination of the problem of pain, and also avoiding burn out, than a defence of the church
I found the last part of the book more an examination of the problem of pain, and also avoiding burn out, than a defence of the church
June 29, 2017
This book is one in a series, Growing Deeper, that I got into through reading Eugene H. Peterson. This one is centered on Church. Why bother? Phillip Yancey talks a lot about the LaSalle Street Church in Chicago that appears to be unusual in its outreach and membership. Their approach to helping one another is valuable. Yancey also speaks of his wife an what she does with her life. It is inspiring. However, the last chapter, Ch. 3, was totally invaluable to me. It spoke to the Pastor and others who deal with congregations, speaking to the difficulties inherent in human relationships and helping the hurting. This chapter was worth the price of the book, which is only about 100 pages long.
July 10, 2018
I thoroughly enjoy Philip Yancey and his reflections on the Christian life. This book included many thought provoking quotes, anecdotes, and situations that would cause one to think twice about church including this quote by C.S. Lewis that was especially good, “God seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye.” Yes it appears that way.
But when God’s creatures behave like anything but, how many times must we shift our perspective, our settings, our mindsets to accommodate a seemingly ungodly institution? I never got to to the bottom of that question in this short read. Still worth the read, I would recommend it.
But when God’s creatures behave like anything but, how many times must we shift our perspective, our settings, our mindsets to accommodate a seemingly ungodly institution? I never got to to the bottom of that question in this short read. Still worth the read, I would recommend it.
February 25, 2024
Honest and raw, Yancey states what church-goers may be thinking but dare not say. He leaves Southern fundamentalism, but later decides to leave the judgement of hypocrisy in God's hands. He explains how he decided not to give up on the church because of his need for Christian community. In defence of the Christian church he explains that it was "the first institution in the history of the world to bring together on an equal footing Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free" (p.30). Of particular interest is his description of the necessity and yet risks of the poles of hypersensitivity and emotional callus for those in Christian ministry.
Recommended for sceptics and lapsed church-goers. Yancey provides a rationale for not giving up on the church despite its imperfections.
Recommended for sceptics and lapsed church-goers. Yancey provides a rationale for not giving up on the church despite its imperfections.
November 16, 2017
A constant question- Church, Why Bother? Especially when it’s been a super busy week & even busier weekend. And Sunday morning rolls around and a lazy morning sounds so amazing!
But I have to admit, anything Yancey writes receives my utmost attention. So I read this book with an open heart to see what answers he had discovered in his search regarding the importance of church.
We need each other, we come together to worship (difficult to do at home on our own), to learn from others & share a common bond.
And as C.S. Lewis says- one command from Jesus is that we share the Eucharist. That’s another tough one to do away without a church body.
But I have to admit, anything Yancey writes receives my utmost attention. So I read this book with an open heart to see what answers he had discovered in his search regarding the importance of church.
We need each other, we come together to worship (difficult to do at home on our own), to learn from others & share a common bond.
And as C.S. Lewis says- one command from Jesus is that we share the Eucharist. That’s another tough one to do away without a church body.
February 27, 2021
My Dad gave me an autographed copy of this book, which I still have. He met the author at a Christian Book Distributors warehouse sale. It's an autobiographical narrative, full of the authors half-hearted pathos, deep angst, and semi-embittered opinions. However, both the plot and the author evolve - he credits this evolution to the Church itself. Community, specifically the Church, changes us. For good or ill, we do need each other, and Yancey examines both the good and the ill, leaning (in the end) to the good, but without sugarcoating (other than in the very sweetness of his writing style, which helps temper the semi-bitterness of his initial impressions).
March 1, 2020
Essential reading for Christians, especially if they, like me, have become disenchanted with the church institution. Yancey gives some insightful perspectives on church-going, and doesn't excuse the malaise that prevails generally.
This book has given me much food for thought. I won't be running back into church buildings, but the possibility of my attending a church service of my own accord has increased thanks to this book.
This book has given me much food for thought. I won't be running back into church buildings, but the possibility of my attending a church service of my own accord has increased thanks to this book.
May 22, 2021
Despite not adequately answering the question in the title of this book, Yancey’s approachable writing style and nuggets of wisdom still shine through. Stories of his church in Chicago were awe-inspiring, yet he tempers them with confessions of the church’s messiness/brokenness. Ultimately, Yancey reminds us the church is like middle schoolers playing Beethoven: it may be excruciating to hear at times but it’s better than the audience never experiencing any glimpse of Beethoven’s brilliance.
October 10, 2017
CS Lewis " God commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye."
The church....irrelevant or part of His design for working out our own salvation? Commissioned as ambassadors..,that's the church. His hands and feet.
The church....irrelevant or part of His design for working out our own salvation? Commissioned as ambassadors..,that's the church. His hands and feet.
February 1, 2019
Some good parts, but overall, the writing felt disjointed and the book lacked structure. Also, the author does not the answer (or try to answer) the question asked in the title. Some good food for thought, but a disappointing read overall.
November 3, 2019
Starting from the foreword by Eugene, this book is a classic in telling the necessity of church amidst all imperfections. I loved Philip's style of writing which is hearty and incisive at the same time.
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