includes bibliographical references

I. A Way of Thinking About Spiritual Community
1. For God's Sake, Don't Expect It To Be Easy
2. It's Not Easy, But It's Worth It
3. Spiritual Community: What It Is
4. It Takes An Armando
5. Unspiritual Community
6. Why Unspiritual Community Is Unspiritual

II. A Way of Understanding Our Struggles
7. Two Rooms
8. There Is a Lower Room
9. Lower Room Furnishings
10. There Is an Upper Room
11. Upper Room Furnishings

III. A Way of Relating in This World
12. Turning Our Souls Toward Each Other: Three Foundational Convictions
13. The Fork in the Road to Spiritual Community
14. Managers or Mystics: The Mystery of Community
15. It's Worth the Risk
16. Enter, See, Touch: A Way of Developing Spiritual Community
17. Becoming Spiritual Community

Most of us assume that, having decided to follow Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will find ourselves in a spiritual community of like-minded friends, a family of brothers and sisters, enjoying one another's companionship on our way to glory. More often than not we are disappointed. Dr. Crabb addresses this universal failure of the church head-on and leads us toward a profound new vision of what the church can be - indeed was meant to be. Rather than a place for people to display their goodness and hide their failures in fear of censure, the chuch should be open, supportive, and compassionate in dealing with our weaknesses.