Why We Need the Church to Become More Like Jesus: Reflections about Community Spiritual Formation and the Story of Scripture

Many of us long to experience the fullness of God and his purpose for our lives. Not a whole lot of us ever do. The reason is that we have departed in some significant ways from the biblical view of Christian life and growth. The New Testament highlights the communal missional and eschatological aspects of our walk with God. We grow in our faith as individual Christians to the degree that we are (a) deeply rooted relationally in a local church community that is (b) passionately playing its part in Gods grand story of Creation Fall Redemption and Restoration and (c) intently anticipating the summing of all things in Christ when Jesus returns. In recent decades American evangelicals have traded away community outreach and the Bibles teaching about eternity future for the pursuit of individual religious experience in the here-and-now. Why We Need the Church to Become More Like Jesus traces this departure from biblical Christianity through recent decades of popular evangelical trends and reminds us that faith centered on community mission and the story line of Scripture remains the key to the spiritual formation of the individual Christian. Joe Hellerman has many roles in ministry but this volume makes clear he is above all a churchman. He speaks to so many issues regarding the church that at points youll likely differ with him or those he quotes. But wherever you stand on the biblical matters Hellerman addresses youll glean something here. In any case his main point is unmistakable and needs greater emphasis everywhere: biblical spirituality is impossible without the deep and abiding influence of the local church. Amen! --Donald S. Whitney professor of biblical spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville Kentucky Joseph H. Hellerman is Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Talbot School of Theology and a team pastor at Oceanside Christian Fellowship in El Segundo California. He has authored When the Church Was a Family (2009) and Embracing Shared Ministry (2013) along with several academic monographs and a commentary on the Greek text of Philippians.