Is the Church the safest place in the world?
Do you long to experience a deeper level of intimacy with God and others? Do you want to be loved unconditionally – to be able to reveal who you really are, without masks and without pretending? Do you want to be part of a family of believers who move forward together toward transformation into the image of Christ? Are you wondering if such a community actually exists? “Yes,” replies Larry Crabb, “it really exists. » It's what he calls the safest place in the world . In this book, he addresses head-on the weaknesses too often present in the Church, and draws us toward a profound new vision of what the Church could be – what it was intended to be. Instead of being a place where people flaunt their goodness and hide their failures for fear of censorship, the Church should be open, understanding, and compassionate about our weaknesses. It should be the place of a true spiritual community, “the safest place in the world”. Larry Crabb is a world-renowned author and speaker. He wishes to promote a vision of the local Church as a place of transformation and learning about dependence on God through authentic relationships between Christians.
“The Church exists for the sole purpose of bringing people into Christ, that is to say, of making them little Christs. If it does not do this, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, and even the Bible are just a waste of time. For God became man for this sole purpose. We can even wonder if the universe was created for another purpose. »
CS Lewis
Contents :
- Preface
- Introduction – Let’s turn our chairs towards each other
- For heaven's sake, don't expect it to be easy!
- It's not easy, but it's worth it
- The spiritual community: what it is
- You need an Armando
- The non-spiritual community
- Why a community is unspiritual
- Two rooms
- There is a lower house
- Lower bedroom furniture
- There is an upper room
- Upper bedroom furniture
- Turning our souls towards each other: three fundamental beliefs
- The fork in the path to spiritual community
- Managers or mystics: the mystery of the community
- It's worth taking risks
- Come in. See. Touch: a way to develop spiritual community
- Topics for meditation and discussion
- Notes
- Index
- Summary