Hello guys, this will be my first attempt at a book review. This is for my benefit as well as yours since I have a hard time remembering what I learned from the books I read throughout the year. My hope is that by recording basic principles of the books as well as things I liked and didn't like I will retain more information than I would have by just simply reading and putting the book away. I developed a simple format to structure the review and make it as concise as possible. Enjoy!
Title: Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus
Author: Jonathan Leeman
Publisher: Crossway
Year: 2012
Pages: 132
Who this book is for: I'd recommend this book for anyone who wants to get a preliminary grasp on the doctrine of church membership...if there ever should be such a doctrine. If you question the idea of being a member of a church or you are one of those people who feel they can hold their Christianity or "relationship with Jesus" to yourself. This book is for you, and hopefully it will shatter that belief. This book is also for average church member who just wants a basic understanding of why it's important to be a member of a church and how to basically defend this doctrine if questioned about it.
Basic Gist: So the basic idea here is that being a Christian essentially means that you're a member of a local church. Saying you're a Christian and a member of a local church are essentially one in the same thing. Being a Christian and not being a member of a local church is pretty much an oxymoron. The church exists to display who Jesus is on earth to the praise and glory of God. We, the church are Christ's ambassadors, and our local churches exist as embassies in a foreign and hostile land (the world). The book gives a sufficient but brief defense of church membership by going through key passages within the New Testament where church membership was seen. The book then goes on to define what a church is, and what a church member is and how church members should live among one another. The book concludes with a contrast of what membership might look like in thriving country where Christianity is legal vs. a third world country or country where practicing Christianity is forbidden. Essentially, the church is it's members, and the members are the Kingdom of God on earth not yet fully realized and the church exists to display God's love and represent Jesus.
Strong Points: This particular book is great because it's part of a series of books on building healthy churches that give concise presentations of basic marks that identify healthy churches. If you're familiar with 9marks then this book won't give you much new information, however it's short enough to pass along to friends who aren't familiar with the case for church membership. This book does a great job building solid evidence from scripture that every Christian should be a part of a local church. Jonathan Leeman is humorous and writes with enough charm and conviction to keep you interested. This book is us wisdom on how to function within a church without being legalistic. He's also clear when he's giving facts from scripture versus when he's just giving his own opinion on something. This is really helpful when sorting what to do in specific situations such as the decision to move to closer to other members of your church in an effort to better serve them for example. One other thing I loved about this book, more so about the author was that his scripture references actually corresponded with whatever he said. I went through the book just looking at some of the scripture references used to justify whatever point he was making and I didn't run into any contextual issues. This is a major plus for me...and should be for anybody reading a book on Christian living. Be a Berean!
Weak Points: This isn't necessarily a weak point but by sheer length alone, this is not your definitive doctrine of church membership defined in the scriptures. For that, I would highly recommend Leeman's other book (Which is pretty much both this book and Church Discipline combined) The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love. If you're a uncompromising exegete like me, you'll find that Leeman doesn't do such an awesome job being dogmatic from the scriptures on evidence for the local church. And that's not really his fault since there isn't really a dogmatic case for the local church in the scriptures. Now, if you want the universal church, that's a different story. However, like the Trinity, evidence for joining a local church can be easily gathered if you follow Leeman's scriptures and read graciously. By the end of the book you shouldn't have any fears that he's trying to trick you :)
With that said, I HIGHLY recommend this book!
Tell me how I did on my first review, things to add, things to leave out, grammar, nuances, etc.
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