For Those Who are Willing to Read Slowly

After all, some truths are meant to be savored.  They are more like a good steak in which you desire to savor every bite.  Far too many people come across important statements and treat them like a hot dog at the ball game.  Scarf it down quickly and get on with eating something else.

One of the best books that I read this summer was by James Wilhoit and is entitled, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered.  Some of the best lines in the book come from the forward which was written by Dallas Willard:

…the central problem facing the contemporary church in the Western world and worldwide, the problem of how to routinely lead its members through a path of spiritual, moral, and personal transformation that brings them into authentic Christlikeness in every aspect of their lives…

 

In the period we have recently come through, there has simply been no serious intention of fostering in our church activities such a process of individual transformation of members of the group.  Becoming the kind of person who routinely and easily does what Jesus told us to do has generally been considered out of reach and therefore not really necessary for what we, as Christians, are about.

 

…the local congreations, the places where Christians gather on a regular basis, must resume the practice of making the spiritual formation of their members into Christlikeness their primary goal, the aim which every one of its activities serves.

 

That was just the forward!  The rest of the book did not disappoint.