The Loveliest Place

The Beauty and Glory of the Church

By: Dustin Benge

Narrated by: Dustin Benge

Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Awakening affection for the beauty of God’s church

Dear. Precious. Lovely. The Bible describes the church in extraordinary ways, even using beautiful poetry and metaphors. How does this compare to how Christians today describe the church? Unfortunately, many believers focus more on its mission, structure, or specific programs than on its inherent beauty. It’s time to spark a renewed affection for the church.

In The Loveliest Place, Dustin Benge urges Christians to see the holy assembly of God’s redeemed people in all its eternal beauty. He explains what makes the church lovely, including the Trinitarian relationship, worship, service, and gospel proclamation. For those who have never learned to view the church as God sees it, or have become disillusioned by its flaws, this audiobook is a reminder that the corporate gathering of believers is a reflection of God’s indescribable beauty.

This is the third audiobook in the Union series, which invites listeners to experience deeper enjoyment of God through four interconnected values: delighting in God, growing in Christ, serving the church, and blessing the world.

©2022 Dustin Benge (P)2022 Crossway

Excellent

Every Christian needs to read this book! It will foster a deeper love for the church and the Triune God!

Great book

If you’ve struggled with the question, what is the Christian church, this book is for you. It is a scripture based book that gets at the nature and plan for the church as well as the function that Jesus has planned for his church. It’s a great book for any Christian but especially church leaders. I highly recommend it.
Sincerely, Pastor Paul Trimble

Refreshing

Thank you for time and dedication to us the body of Christ who are sometimes parched

It's okay, disliked the allegory reading

Unfortunately for this review, the author opened up his book with something that completely bothered me. I'm surprised, unpleasantly, to hear that he is perpetuating the allegorical reading of Song of Songs. It's so sad that those who read it in the distant past were squeamish about the sexual content in the book, and allegorized it to help themselves feel less uncomfortable. Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon, is a love poem written probably during the reign of Solomon, maybe by someone in his court (thus the reference to him in the book -I did a college paper on the book and I agree with the theory that a man like him wouldn't write something like this). It's got some sexual imagery that honors the romantic relationship between a bride and her groom. There's nothing wrong with this, but people in the past were uncomfortable with it, so made it an allegory about the church and Jesus, even though Jesus wouldn't come to earth for hundreds of years later! In the Bible, it usually makes it clear if something is a prophecy (it's actually in a book written by a prophet, or it's documented as being something a prophet said) -so it's not a prophecy about the church and Jesus. And allegories are usually explained or obvious, take Jesus' parables or the writings of Ezekiel. There is nothing in Song of Songs that suggests the author meant for it to be some prophetic allegory. It's a celebration of sensual, romantic love, and it goes into far more detail about that one aspect of marriage that Jesus and Paul never go into so deeply (thankfully).

That's the main problem I have here is just the misuse and abuse of Song of Songs. The Loveliest Place wasn't what I thought it would be. He did kind of go into some things about the church that was interesting. Also, it took a while to get used to his voice. He's got an American southern accent that pops out now and again. I wish he'd just let it loose! But people think if you have a southern accent, you're unrefined, so I understand him trying to hold it back. Overall, his book was okay.