Book Review: Why Church Matters by Joshua Harris

by Coyle Neal

December 13, 2011

@CoyleNeal

This book by Joshua Harris (formerly titled Stop Dating the Church!: Fall in Love with the Family of God) is a little primer on, appropriately, why church matters.

To that end, a few observations:

1) this book is only written for Christians. Of course non-Christians are welcome to attend church on Sunday mornings, even encouraged to do so. But there is no obligation on someone who does not self-identify as a Christian to join a local church.

2) if you are a Christian and are not active in a local church, you're probably struggling with pride. Or, even more likely, not struggling with pride. (Of course, Harris is too much the gentleman to come out and say that explicilty, but I'm a nobody reviewer and can say what I like, bwahahahaha!) Among the many things the church is intended to do, God has set it in place to help take care of us, and for us to live out our faith by helping to take care of others. If we are not doing that, we are, in practice if not openly in our words, telling God that he has made a mistake and that we do not need the body of people he has prepared for our good.

And really, those are the big points. Beyond that Harris discusses things like how to spot a good local church, how to support the local church, and how to get the most out of local church (not from a consumer perspective, but rather from the perspective of a Christian who wants to reflect the Gospel in his own life).

Highly recommended as a starting place for thinking about our lives together as Christians.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.