by Thabiti M. Anyabwile
excerpted from the book's introduction
Jenny surprised me when she started crying during our membership interview. The first twenty minutes of the interview were fairly routine. She recounted her childhood growing up in a Christian home, her high school years filled with fear, and a period of living as a prodigal during college. Then she recalled with some joy her conversion experience in a hometown local church.
So I did not expect her to sob at the question, “How was that church for you spiritually? Did you grow there?”
After pausing a moment, she explained, "I expected that after my conversion someone would have helped me to grow as a Christian.” She continued with a distant trace of confusion and anger: “But it was as if people put me in a corner somewhere, as if they expected me to figure things out on my own. It was a terribly lonely time.”
How many Jennys have you met in your lifetime? Perhaps you are a Jenny. Perhaps you have spent considerable time in a local church, or several churches. And perhaps your Christian life is not too dissimilar from Jenny’s. You came to faith bright eyed and bushy tailed, bouncing with energy and zeal to do great things for the Lord. But soon you found yourself wondering, “What exactly am I supposed to be doing as a member of this local church?”
If so, this book is written for you. And if not, this book is written for you, too.
Whether your Christian life began yesterday or thirty years ago, the Lord’s intent is that you play an active and vital part in his body, the local church. He intends for you to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth. He intends for his churches to be healthy places and for the members of those churches to be healthy as well.
This little book is written in the hope that you might discover or rediscover what it means to be a healthy member of a local church, and what it means to contribute to the overall health of the church.
Please visit the Discerning Reader website to read a review by Tim Challies.You can pick up a copy of this book at Books by the Park, and for more book recommendations to help you build your personal library, please visit our website.
