Book Review: Loving the Church - God's People Flourishing in God's Family

By John Crotts

Shepherd’s Press, 135 pages

This little book surprised me. I mean it really, pleasantly surprised me. I expected this to be a book for pastors about how to care and nourish God’s flock, but it ended up being a book about what it means for each member of the Body of Christ to commit to and care about their own local church.

Crotts packs a lot of information in this little book. He also fits all the information nicely into a small fictional narrative that serves as a skeleton for the book. Crotts gives compelling examples from Scripture as to why each believer should be a member of a local church and actively serve and commit to that church.

I like Crotts’ approach in this book because he gently yet firmly confronts our false ideas about what church is. He shows that the Scriptures stand in direct opposition to our American mindset of ‘go-it-alone’ in the Christian life. And he encourages each one of us to face what Scripture says and align ourselves with Scripture, not Scripture with ourselves.

This book pairs well with ‘The Deliberate Church’ by Dever and ‘Stop Dating the Church’ by Harris. I was pleasantly surprised to find this gem of a book. I’m convinced that each church member ought to read this book and seriously evaluate whether or not they are sinning by neglecting a local body of believers.