The Compelling Community
Author: Mark Dever & Jamie Dunlop
Written: 2015
“My concern for the evangelical church isn’t so much that we’re ut to deny the gospel in fostering community. Instead, my concern is that despite good intentions, we’re building communities that can thrive regardless of the gospel.”
Hello Ordinary Readers,
We all desire community. We were created to live in community. We know this and our churches know that there is a need to worship God as the church. What Jamie Dunlop writes about is shedding light on the fact that our churches have drifted some from the Bible. Many of the communities our churches foster are ones that could exist without the gospel. Such as a similar life experience, similar identity, a cause, needs, and even social position. I love the college ministry that I was a part of and later on staff, and even Jamie would say that it isn’t necessarily bad to have a group of specifically college students. But is my church connecting those students with adults, or has it become just silo that only college students are in, and they never are brought into the fold of the church.
Jamie makes a case that if our community is not a gospel community then it will either miss breadth or width and in many cases both. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he points out that Christ died so there is no division between Jew and Gentile;
“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:15-18).
The point here is gospel community looks different than the world. We naturally create communities with like-minded people. So does your church look the same; the same ethnicity, all young, all older, all college students, or all wealthy? Or do you see a diverse group of people that would only be in community together because of the gospel?
That is what Jamie and Mark are getting at. I would recommend this book for all believers, but as Jamie points out in the introduction it is mainly written for church leaders. If you are not a leader then you have to do a little work to read it a bit differently. This book has not only helped me rethink the kind of community I want to see at church it has helped keep my eyes peeled for those in the church that are different than me.
Happy Reading!
Quotes
“When Christians unite around something other than the gospel, they create community that would likely exist even if God didn’t.”
“Yet as we do this, we must remember that community isn’t the point. The point, teh substance, is God.”
“But I’m concerned that the things we do to attract people can actually compromise our ability to nurture a supernatural community.”
“Heatly churches need providers, not consumers.”
“The Bible assumes that all Christians love one another deeply and sacrificially.”
“Diversity is the effect, not the substance.”
“God’s Word is living and active, even when you are not. Be patient and watch it take root and flourish.”
“Prayer is an ordinary means to accomplish supernatural ends.”
“The gospel asserts that unity in Christ is stronger than worldly difference.”