When I first received this book, I was very excited to read it as I was going through a period in my life of struggling with my experiences in the church. However, I found this book extremely difficult to get through (it took me months of picking it up and putting it down) and the author tended to contradict his own points throughout the book. While I do agree with some of his arguments about what is wrong with churches today, I think the biggest problem Mr. Crabb is facing is his lifestyle. He says that due to his travel schedule he is unable to attend any one church on a regular basis. What he is missing is the sense of community and belonging that you get from attending the same church regularly. In his line of work, I'm not sure he's ever going to find what he's looking for. ( )

This is another great book by Larry Crabb who continues to make me think in ways I never had before. He writes with refreshing honesty, and navigates the minefield of missional, postmodern, traditional, and liberal view of churches. He is on a short list of authors whose books have changed my life.

He opens the book by saying he is not interested in church anymore, finding it boring and dull, and that it does not have the answers, pointing out the flaws in various groups approaches to church. He describes the kind of church he would like to be a part of, and goes on to explain how to make that happen.

Money quote "Pharisees, not prostitutes, are satan's masterpieces."

Most books, in one way or another, are about giving answers.

Not so with Larry Crabb’s new book Real Church. It doesn’t give answers as much as it asks questions. Good questions, important questions, about the nature of what Jesus envisions the church to be. The kinds of questions that are rarely asked nowadays in the evangelical church, mainly because we assume we’ve already got those questions answered, and the questions we concern ourselves with now are about how to do everything we are already doing better. We ask “One service or two? Contemporary or traditional? Sunday School or small groups?”

This book, however, is about entirely different questions, questions that go much deeper: “Why are mature people who love God drifting away from church? Why do people who have little commitment to Christ enjoying church, and why are they not growing? Why is it not enough for a church to call people to belief in Christ and to lead moral lives? What are the marks of a church that creates people & community that are truly supernatural?”

In his preface, Larry himself writes:

What church would compel me to attend? What kind of church service would I hate to miss? What church would I feel privileged to be part of? I had a hard time coming up with an answer. So I decided to think more about it. I think best with a pen in my hand. Hence this little book.

By the end of the book, he hasn’t come up with pat answers, but he has asked some penetrating questions (in fact, twelve of the chapter titles are questions, such as “So What Is It that Makes a Gathering a Church?” and “It Will Offer Salvation and Help for Righteous Living: Is that the Deep Change God Wants?”).

Larry does, however, lay out four marks of a church that he would want to be part of:

1. Understands and encourages dynamic, transformative Biblical truth
2. Understands and encourages spiritual formation
3. Understands and encourages spiritual community
4. Is energized to do the missional work of the Kingdom

So, what did I get out of this book? Besides taking a ton of notes & quotes, Real Church gave me new perspectives and categories to think through what it truly means to “do church,” as well as my own private spiritual formation. If you want to think seriously about the church and the Kingdom then read this book. ( )

Since I've had these same thoughts for quite a while, I thought that this book would give me some answers. I found the book helpful to an extint, but the author contradicted himself several times and never seemed to come up with an answer. There were a few times I had force myself to keep reading and then the subject would shift slightly and I'd get interested again. I think the book would have had a bigger impact on me if it wasn't so repetitive. Although it wouldn't be something I'd read again, I am glad I read it, and I think anyone that is having disheartening thoughts about going to church should read it and see if they get something more from it than I did. I've read many good reviews about the book, it just didn't give me what I was looking for. ( )