There Is No I in Church: Moving Beyond Individual Spirituality to Experience God's Power in the Church
Overview
Into a culture that prizes individualism above all things, Keith Drury issues a call for believers to return to their roots—the church. This hard-hitting book challenges American Christianity's preoccupation with personal religion and boldly asserts that we become holy only together—as the Bride of Christ. In the author's words, "We have plenty of spiritual fingers and spiritual ears and eyes, but God longs for a whole church—a body—that is spiritually mature."
This book is not to be read alone! It is for the church, and it is best read with a group. There are scores of books on personal spiritual disciplines but few on corporate spiritual disciplines: the spiritual disciplines of the church. From public prayer, to preaching, fellowship, and the Lord's Supper, Drury convincingly shows the value of corporate spiritual practices and offers practical tips for transforming the spiritual dynamic of a local church or small group.
Take the no-nonsense call to corporate spiritually with There Is No I in Church and transform your congregation—and your life. All Scripture passages are linked to your favorite Bible translation in your library. With the advanced search features of Logos Bible Software, you can perform powerful searches by topic or Scripture reference.
- Provides corporate spiritual disciplines to strengthen the church as a whole
- Includes a study guide on how to lead a small group in learning from this book
- The Bride: How God Transforms His People
- Koinonia: Doing Life Together
- Corporate Prayer: Becoming a Praying People
- Scripture: Hearing the Word
- Moving of God: Feeling God among Us
- Testimony: Bearing Witness to the Work of God
- The Lord's Supper: Experience the Presence of Christ
- Conversion and Baptism: Seeing New Converts
- What Next? Nine Ways to Implement the Ideas in This Book
Top Highlights
“Salvation is more than just being forgiven for sinning; it is about joining the fellowship of the forgiven.” (Page 17)
“Our fallen nature drives us to become the master of our own lives rather than submitting ourselves to Christ and the church. Our love of private religion may simply be a lordship issue. We hate submission. We want to be spiritually self-sufficient. We may dress this carnal desire in pious language like ‘I rely only on God,’ but what we are really saying is, ‘I rely only on myself.’ Human beings rebel against submitting to authority—especially the authority of the flawed group of humans in the church.” (Page 21)
“We want freedom to be ourselves, freedom to do whatever we choose, freedom to have the exact style of worship music we prefer, freedom to design our own religion, and freedom to retain our own identity by refusing to melt into a group. This propensity may be very Western and very American, but it is also sinful. The gospel of Jesus Christ calls us into submissive community with other Christians. It is our sinful nature that tells us to resist.” (Pages 21–22)
“Heaven is about becoming a people. Heaven will melt our stubborn individuality and merge us together into a group—the bride of Christ. It will be the church that goes to heaven, not just a bunch of individual believers. That is why people who reject the church cannot be Christian. They won’t melt. They won’t join the bride.” (Page 16)
“We are not supposed to be waging a physical war but a holy one. The weapons with which we fight are not material but spiritual. And the source of our power is not clever fundraising or quality leadership but God himself.” (Page 44)
- Title: There Is No I in Church: Moving Beyond Individual Spirituality to Experience God's Power in the Church
- Author: Keith Drury
- Publisher: Wesleyan Publishing House
- Publication Date: 2006
- Pages: 160