I just finished a recent book by Larry Crabb, Real Church . His main argument is that much of the Evangelical church in the USA seems to be playing a lot of games and not focusing on deep, lasting, and biblical spiritual transformation.

He criticizes various empty promises given to church goers. While some churches promise to “make life better” for those who attend, he finds this attitude leads to loving God for mere self-serving reasons rather than for God’s sake. He concludes that being good at a deep level is a better happiness than dwelling in the right circumstance or having regular experiences of comfort.

Second, he challenges an over-emphasis on spiritual experience that neglects a healthy promotion of spiritual hunger. Sometimes our seeking to experience God now can get in the way of knowing God as God wants to be known. There is a self-generated experience of mysticism that does not compare to a true mystic experience that God grants on his schedule and in his way. Sometimes we learn more about God and our devotion is more deeply fostered when experiencing God’s distance. Ecstatic moments many times don’t help in the long haul.

He challenges a shallow “authenticity” that does not adequately address the darkness of sin and our need to have transformative relationships to help us through our own messiness. He longs to see an authenticity that is honest with sin, challenges our addictive tendencies, and fosters a hope in God. Do we love Jesus more than our inner or social comfort?

He also challenges an approach to spiritual life that focus only on “saving the lost and moralizing the saved.” In contrast to seeing salvation as just getting a ticket to heaven, he emphasizes a growing knowledge of God in a deep relational way and finding one’s identity in Him. In contrast to seeing the Christian life as merely following a set of rules or social standards, he emphasizes the practice of enjoying God more than the pleasures this world offers (whether it is religious prestige, wealth, physical pleasures, or whatever) and finding personal satisfaction only in God. He further contrasts the simplistic view of salvation as an “insurance” for the afterlife with the freedom to sacrifice now for the blessing of others because of the hope in the future resurrected life.

He ends his book with four (non-exhaustive) marks of a healthy church:

1. A church that hungers for the truth that sets addicts free. This hunger for truth is not only about God or the Bible but also includes the concrete truth about ourselves. It involves a readiness to deal with the darkest and most secret sins in us because of the hope of the resurrection that says that God is with us, for us, and (through the Holy Spirit) in us.
2. A church that respects the necessary ingredients in the remedy for addiction. This church will do what is necessary to foster true spiritual formation that we might desire God, deeply believe in God, choose God freely, and be content in God.
3. A church that is content in wanting what Jesus wants. He emphasizes the importance of inner transformation that precedes outward actions. “Outside goodness doesn’t clean up inside badness.” We must face up with what we’re up against and what is in us that gets in the way of a godly life. We need to find “something more compelling than protecting ourselves” to grab us deep inside and transform.
4. A church that is mission-energized. He describes this as doing compassionate acts, fighting for justice, and other acts of goodness not out of guilt or a need for penance, but because of the bigger picture of the God’s Kingdom and a passion to “set things right.”

This book brought up some good points and necessary challenges to the contemporary American Evangelical church, in spite of its meandering and verbose writing style. This is not Crabb’s best work, and I more heartily recommend Connecting or The Pressure’s Off This book is a helpful application of Crabb’s view of spiritual formation and group-driven discipleship to the church as a whole.