Stop Dating the Church!

My wife and I just finished reading a book called Stop Dating the Church: Fall in Love with the Family of God by Joshua Harris. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Harris' point is that too many Christians "date" the church when they should be making a lifelong commitment to it. The author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy Meets Girl continues the relationship metaphor by applying it to the church and those who make it up. The metaphor itself is very clever - I've never seen them connected and correlated in this way (that doesn't mean it hasn't happened, it simply means that I haven't encountered it).

Harris' metaphor, and the way he develops it, makes the Christian's relationship to the church much easier to understand than many books or speakers have. This is one of the great strengths of the book - he explains in plain language why the church is necessary in the life of every Christian and why it's important to commit to a church rather than "church hop" (the equivalent to "two-timing" according to Harris). Stop Dating the Church is short (129 pages) and very good.

Among the chapters are "Can This Relationship Be Saved?: What We Miss When We Date the Church", "Why We Really Need the Local Church: Thinking Globally, Loving Locally", and "Rescuing Sunday: How To Get More from the Best Day of the Week."

This book could and should be read by anyone, and anyone who does will benefit greatly.

You can learn more about Joshua Harris here and here.