Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book about "Spiritual Community"
Review: "The Safest Place on Earth" provides keen insight into our need to know and be known by others in a "spiritual community". Crabb brilliantly describes the beauty of this kind of connection with other and also adeptly outlines the many roadblocks which stand in the way of our entering into this type of community which is marked by "turning our souls toward one another". The book balances theory and theology with practical application. This book will certainly not do the work of community for you, but it will help to identify many of the issues and categories that will help you to get there. This book about Spiritual Community is a timely vision for the church in North America in an era when anonymity, consumerism, and individualism are closely guarded idols.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book about "Spiritual Community"
Review: "The Safest Place on Earth" provides keen insight into our need to know and be known by others in a "spiritual community". Crabb brilliantly describes the beauty of this kind of connection with other and also adeptly outlines the many roadblocks which stand in the way of our entering into this type of community which is marked by "turning our souls toward one another". The book balances theory and theology with practical application. This book will certainly not do the work of community for you, but it will help to identify many of the issues and categories that will help you to get there. This book about Spiritual Community is a timely vision for the church in North America in an era when anonymity, consumerism, and individualism are closely guarded idols.
Rating:
Summary: Don't read this book if you don't want your life to change!
Review: A book about spiritual community. The most honest and helpful book I've ever read. Crabb's fresh but thoroughly Biblical metaphor of the upper and lower room (the spirit and the flesh) has changed my life more than any other truth I have ever learned--ever. Crabb's vision for the church to be the safest place on earth has given me new hope and vision for what the church could be.
Rating:
Summary: Don't read this book if you don't want your life to change!
Review: A book about spiritual community. The most honest and helpful book I've ever read. Crabb's fresh but thoroughly Biblical metaphor of the upper and lower room (the spirit and the flesh) has changed my life more than any other truth I have ever learned--ever. Crabb's vision for the church to be the safest place on earth has given me new hope and vision for what the church could be.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a book that tells the truth in many forms
Review: As I read Crabbs book I began a journey that will not end once the last chapter is read and the book is put on the shelf. I saw myself in so many of his chapters. I found that I could relate to much of the struggles that are apparent in the Body of Christ as a whole. Many times reading I had to stop and seek the face of the Lord for healing and even at times I found myself repenting. Crabb truly has a wonderful tool given to the Body of Christ to build communities of believers where we can be changed, healed, restored, and grow in a closer intimacy and passion with Jesus. This would be a great book for small group study/discussion. The first chapter was a bit slow, and comes across overly intellectually. But as you continue on further you will find deep and meaningful moments of self discovery. Many times reading the light bulb would finally come on for me and God would begin to reveal to me issues of the heart that He desired to work on. I truly believe that all Christian believers and leaders should read this book. This truly is a Life Giving work that God will use to transform your life if you allow Him and not resist.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a book that tells the truth in many forms
Review: As I read Crabbs book I began a journey that will not end once the last chapter is read and the book is put on the shelf. I saw myself in so many of his chapters. I found that I could relate to much of the struggles that are apparent in the Body of Christ as a whole. Many times reading I had to stop and seek the face of the Lord for healing and even at times I found myself repenting. Crabb truly has a wonderful tool given to the Body of Christ to build communities of believers where we can be changed, healed, restored, and grow in a closer intimacy and passion with Jesus. This would be a great book for small group study/discussion. The first chapter was a bit slow, and comes across overly intellectually. But as you continue on further you will find deep and meaningful moments of self discovery. Many times reading the light bulb would finally come on for me and God would begin to reveal to me issues of the heart that He desired to work on. I truly believe that all Christian believers and leaders should read this book. This truly is a Life Giving work that God will use to transform your life if you allow Him and not resist.
Rating:
Summary: Crabb's book gave new hope after a bad church experience
Review: For those of us who are unable to hide our sin and pain behind smiles, Crabb proposes a startling "new" model: a spiritual community that offers a higher level of acceptance and love, and a chance develop stronger, healthier passions to replace the sinful passions of our old nature. Underlying his message is the belief that we can't really change our sin nature-- all we can do is let Christ's love and the support of truly, non-judgementmal friends help us replace the bad with the good. This book challenges modern counseling in some ways-- but maybe it should be challenged. The author admits to idealism in his proposal of a spiritual community that gives us a place to be real... but it is an idealism toward which we must reach. For anyone frustrated with "churchianity" and desirous of true Christian community, this book is amazingly thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Crabb's book gave new hope after a bad church experience
Review: For those of us who are unable to hide our sin and pain behind smiles, Crabb proposes a startling "new" model: a spiritual community that offers a higher level of acceptance and love, and a chance develop stronger, healthier passions to replace the sinful passions of our old nature. Underlying his message is the belief that we can't really change our sin nature-- all we can do is let Christ's love and the support of truly, non-judgementmal friends help us replace the bad with the good. This book challenges modern counseling in some ways-- but maybe it should be challenged. The author admits to idealism in his proposal of a spiritual community that gives us a place to be real... but it is an idealism toward which we must reach. For anyone frustrated with "churchianity" and desirous of true Christian community, this book is amazingly thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Imagine Love...
Review: I am in the habit of adding notes and references in the front of the books I read so I can return to specific passages when writing or researching issues. I can measure their impact on my thinking by the number of them, and the flyleaf of my copy of this book has little room left. A Psychologist by training, but more, a devoted follower of the Lamb who understands the disciple's journey into the shadow of the valley well, Dr. Crabb shares insights about the nature of the church that bring us back to consider what spiritual community means in real life terms. Larry's writing has the humility and the scars that come from being genuinely engaged in walking with God.This is a timely book, combining an understanding of the intended intimacy of the church with the freshly awakening desire across Christendom for spiritual formation and direction in the church. In my notes I find definitions for things like: love; life and death; brokenness; mysticism; community; the church. He offers observations about what is lacking Psychology and in psychological theory, and he offers workable models for the church to develop the intimacy, love and community our Triune God intended in both our and the church's design. If you are considering small groups, and wondering whether they should be evangelistic, or bible studies, or project based, Larry offers an alternative: building genuine community, intertwining lives in functional and useful ways that further our development and transformation. If you are working to develop an understanding our dual natures of flesh and His life within, Larry speaks clearly and usefully to these issues. Dr. Crabb's book is useful for an individual to study, giving us insights into deeper truths in practical and understandable ways. It is equally useful for a group to work through together in understanding the dynamics of community and in living together in ways that produce authentic change. But, most importantly, this is a book that speaks like the voice of a prophet to a floundering church, calling us back to a simple plan: community... I think this is the single most important book (outside the scriptures, of course) I've ever read. I can't make a stronger recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: A Dissapointing Read - The mystic is too mystic
Review: I realize that being the first person to criticize Larry Crabb I could be labeled unspiritual and certainly not valuing Christian Community. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am involved with a close knit group of believers in a thriving Christian community. I've studied the word for a few years now so I was familiar with some of Crabb's concepts especially community and its power to promote spiritual growth. Crabb's concept of "upper and lower" rooms have been more commonly referred to as eternal and temporal or God and Flesh.
My biggest complaint is that I felt Crabb made these concepts a lot more difficult and out of reach on the ideal level than they needed to be. If I were a new believer reading this book I would be completely paranoid and develop spiritual paralysis. Crabb asserts that anytime a thought enters our mind about "am I hurt?" or "do I need to self protect?" that we are operating out of the lower room. In actuality those thoughts are merely a product of our fallen state and the only time we fall into sin would be if we focus and dwell on these things instead of what God is calling on us to do.
Crabb also asserts that there are no psychological problems only spiritual. I absolutely disagree with this from a clinical standpoint although some people certainly have spiritual issues mixed in.
Crabb also has no category for obeying the word if your heart is not behind it. This is something I can't understand because one way we trust God is to follow Him when sometimes we don't understand why. Crabb also complained that questions such as "What does the Bible say I should do?" and "How can I love my husband well?" are managerial (legalistic). I completely disagree. I think these are great questions a growing Christian could be asking.
For the sake of brevity I'll save my other complaints and just say that I do think Crabb had good intent and wanted to persuade against legalism and encourage us to focus on the eternal rather than temporal. However, I think he got so caught up in his "mysticism" as he calls it that his writing was obscure and not culturally relevant.
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