Spiritual Disciplines within the Church: Participating Fully in the Body of Christ
Overview
In a world committed to self-seeking and the thirst for individual rights, it is hard to create a genuine community based on self-sacrifice and mutual commitment—but that is just what the church must do. In Spiritual Disciplines within the Church seminary professor, author, and former pastor Don Whitney shows how the local church can build a sense of community and turn church people from passive attendees into active participants. Whitney looks at such frequently asked questions as:
- Why can’t I get by on my own?
- Why should I go to church?
- Why should I give of myself to the church?
- Why do I need to worship in church? Couldn’t I just worship in nature?
- Why does it matter whether I become a member of the church?
Committed love must mark the local expression of the body of Christ. By putting spiritual disciplines into practice in the church, congregations can return to the depth of community present in the New Testament church, where they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
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Top Highlights
“Third, you love God with your mind by what you mentally tolerate.” (Page 184)
“Baptism is an outward, visible symbol of things that have already happened inwardly. When God brings a person into spiritual life, that person enters into the spiritual and invisible body of Christ—the universal church. When that spiritual experience is pictured in water baptism, that is the individual’s symbolic entry into the tangible and visible body of Christ—the local church.” (Page 138)
“You can’t do it only by sitting in worship together, even though that is crucial. A lot of this encouragement obviously has to involve face-to-face interaction. I don’t mean that we must gather in small groups for ‘encouragement meetings.’ Rather, through the infinite ways of having fellowship we can fulfill God’s benevolent command to assemble and encourage one another.” (Page 159)
“Congregational worship is more edifying for the Christian than private worship, whether that worship takes place under the stars or on a couch with an open Bible, because we receive from spiritual resources that are unavailable when alone. In the public worship of God we can experience the preaching of His Word, the spiritual gifts of Christians, the prayers of our brothers and sisters in Christ, congregational praise, fellowship, and many other things that we cannot receive in private worship.” (Page 78)
“Additionally, ordinances are ceremonies given by Christ to the church, and not to individual Christians. That’s why we don’t encourage people to baptize their children in the bathtub, for instance, or their newly converted neighbors in the swimming pool at home. That’s also why we should not take the Lord’s Supper in small groups apart from the rest of the church without the church’s blessing.” (Page 136)
- Title: Spiritual Disciplines within the Church
- Author: Donald S. Whitney
- Publisher: Moody Publishers
- Series: Moody Church Leadership Collection
- Publication Date: 1996
- Pages: 175
Donald S. Whitney is founder and president of The Center for Biblical Spirituality and has served as professor of biblical spirituality and associate dean at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, since 2005. He is also a former pastor and the author of many books, including the bestselling Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life and How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian?.