We need to be enthusiastic about truth and mission and we need to be enthusiastic about relationships and community.... The theology that matters is not the theology we profess but the theology we practice. As John Stott says, “Our static, inflexible, self-centered structures are ‘heretical structures’ because they embody a heretical doctrine of the church.” If “our structure has become an end in itself, not a means of saving the world,” it is “a heretical structure.” Being both gospel-centered and community-centered might mean: 1. seeing church as an identity instead of a responsibility to be juggled alongside other commitments 2. celebrating ordinary life as the context in which the word of God is proclaimed with “God-talk” as a normal feature of everyday conversation 3. running fewer evangelistic events, youth clubs, and social projects and spending more time sharing our lives with unbelievers 4. starting new congregations instead of growing existing ones 5. switching the emphasis from Bible teaching to Bible learning and action 6. spending more time with people on the margins of society 7. learning to disciple one another— and to be discipled— day by day 8. having churches that are messy instead of churches that pretend Church is not a meeting you attend or a place you enter. It is an identity that is ours in Christ. It is an identity that shapes the whole of life so that life and mission become “total church.” Chester, Tim; Timmis, Steve (2013-06-30). Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community (Re:Lit) (Kindle Locations 215-218). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 14:02:36 +0000
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