u/Balancing32

Is there a good ministry book or Christian thinker who takes the reader through the process of living a church life? Church life is very complex, it involves the engagement and integration of one's personal doctrinal understanding, life experience, spiritual needs, toleration of others, with church leadership and the entire congregation--all who bring their own such issues as well. Few life situations would match that level of complexity and I feel there are not many written resources which conceptualize this aspect of Christian life and help Christians work through it.

I am looking for books considerably more deep and thoughtful than simply saying "get our there and do things, meet people, talk to your pastor, join the band...." Yes sometimes those ideas really are important but for this question I am looking for something different than that.

For example we may find that our church is rather light-hearted, even shallow, in its taking of the bread and wine. This may really rub someone the wrong way; it may even feel sinful. But because a church is by definition a group practice one can not help but get dragged along with that. This does not mean "changing churches" because no church is perfect and we will find problems everywhere so there must be real solution to this which doesn't just simply bump the problem to somewhere else.

That is just one example of probably a few dozen possibilities, and it is only meant as an example. What I am really looking for is a book that deals with the general problem of living a church life which will never be perfect while at the same time we have our own convictions regarding doctrine, and depth of experience which we do not want to lay aside.

Did anyone notice that the book Gilfoyle is reading in season 4 episode 3 when he is talking to Dinesh around 14:20. It is a Chinese book, looks like a journal. It certainly is not a mistake.

As some may notice from before my questions are open ended and so please be encouraged to know that I am perfectly fine with open-ended answers as well.

I am seeking some clarification on the group often referred to as the Serving Ones. Initially I had spent a fair amount of time in certain church meetings and we had read many excerpts from the ministry. One of the points that I liked about the ministry was the idea that we are not called by Christ to serve, but rather called simply to believe. I recall passages also talking about a common occurrence with new believers being that after believing they then want to "do" something for Christ or the church. However the ministry was saying in its own way that this is not really the case; we do not need to do anything for Christ and in fact we should not do anything because it is quite likely we will harm the church.

Then I would over hear people talk about "the serving ones" and over time learned this is a group, I guess, of people inside the church. This is not to say that some serving is not necessary in a community life. However I am unsure how making such a need into specified role fits into the ministry with regard to organicism and spontaneity in our church life. How does the serving ones' group get formed and what are the expectations in the group?