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Larry Crabb is worried. A Christian and faithful churchgoer for many decades, Larry has started to lose interest in going to church – and he’s not the only one.

With passion and candour, Larry Crabb appeals to the church leadership and the laity to reestablish what is supposed to be at the heart of the church – a community of believers whose earnest desire is to become more like Jesus in every aspect of their lives, to the glory of God.

I have to admit that as I perused the contents page, I was mentally piling up reasons to hate this book. For example, Crabb lists “Offering Salvation” as something that churches do that doesn’t encourage him to attend church.

This primed me to react against Crabb’s thesis: “Another anti-evangelism guy” I thought.

However, Real Church, far from being anti-evangelism, (or anti-establishment – something else I feared it would be) – far from that – it is actually a call to churches to go deeper. Crabb’s vision is for a church that doesn’t settle for shallow impact. He wants a church that, through its ministry, effects lasting change in the lives of its members.

In Crabb’s opinion, the answer to the question “Real Church: Does It Exist? Can I Find It?” Is “YES!”. But it won’t happen as long as churches continue to attempt to attract people with Promises of a Better Life, Answers that are Ego-centric and Human Focused, Mission that is Shallow and Short-sighted, and… Yet Another Church Program!

Church, says Larry Crabb, needs to go much, much deeper.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is feeling discontent with the state of the evangelical church today. Discontent – but willing to do something about it. You won’t agree with everything he says, but Real Church will make you think and rethink what being the church is all about.