Here’s a thoughtful article from Luke Stamps that does not denigrate the need for personal piety but seeks to show the importance of church-oriented spirituality. Here’s the opening paragraph:
One of the great hallmarks of evangelicalism has been its emphasis on personal piety. From its roots in the First Great Awakening to the present day, the evangelical movement has stressed the necessity of personal faith in Christ, the personal spiritual disciplines of Scripture reading and prayer, personal holiness, and personal evangelism and good works. Each of these emphases can be defended from Scripture, and taken together they help explain why evangelical piety remains so vibrant even in an increasingly secular culture. However, this personal focus, combined with the evangelical movement’s tendency toward theological reductionism due to its multi-denominational nature, has sometimes prevented evangelicals from fully appreciating the unique importance of the local church in the spiritual formation of God’s people.
