Gospel Community:
My thoughts after listening to Matt Chandlers preach here.
Jesus. The face of Christianity…. If we knew what his face looked like. A lot of people that I know have quite a few questions around Jesus, and who he is, what he came to do, how he did it, and pretty much anything and everything he did.
His life is should be the one thing that I study continually, testing my life against in all areas. If I don’t I find that my life and my priorities in life change drastically in a matter of days. This got me thinking then about the whole concept of “Gospel Community” and what that means. I hear a lot of preaches from people whom I really respect, always talking about living in “Community” and “Missional living”.
Something that I have found difficult to differentiate is preaching from the bible and how the Apostils lived there lives, and how they conducted themselves, or how Jesus lived his life, and what he said; compared to someone preaching about their own methodology about a topic in the bible, mainly living in “Community” or living a “Missional Life”.
It’s origins for me come to the importance and a physical building. Matt Chandler the pastor of The Village Church in Texas said this, “Community does NOT define the Gospel. The Gospel defines community… to say otherwise is at best silly”. This speaks loads to me, I have found that people are always talking about how we need to be a community and need to have a close community and family feel as a congregation, but when push comes to shove the majority of churches and the majority of congregations are not living a life that stems from the Gospel. The Physical building is just a gathering place for people to meet in. Now, some churches have their own gyms, have there own cafes, have there own little community that is separate from the city in which they live, and if that is what God has called them to do, then who am I to say that is wrong. But, for me I believe that the church building should not be the focus and the centre point, and I know that most people will say that it isn’t. But in their actions, they seem to place an over emphasis on the actual building. Church should be a safe place for everyone, which I agree with, but when that gets put above the Gospel, and above relationship outside of our Christian Community, that’s when things can very easily start sliding back.
I find in my life that I can be very petty and very jealous of people, and I think that I may not be the only one who things feels that. When someone else comes into the picture at my youth group, my initial response is to hurt them for stealing “my” light!! How bad is my heart! When someone has a revelation from God, and they have most likely been spending a lot of time with God and praying, and He then reveals something to them, I think to myself, “WHY THEM!” and then I figure out 10 different reasons why they are fake Christians and they are not true to God. So as you can see my life is not the perfect picture of the Gospel and how Christ should impact someone’s life. But I try and live a life of repentance and meet up with guys and chat about my heart issues; because I know that I can go to being a very cynical Christian who is very stubborn in his own ways, very quickly, by the way…I am 21. So for me, Chirst has put a huge weight on my heart about seeing people live a life of repentance and not being proud of who I am.
One Body with Many Members
12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our un-presentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
This text is something that I really look at for guidance when thinking about community, because I can very easily judge how people act and their contribution, where as this text keeps me humble and allows me to process how each part of the Kingdom of God plays a vital part in a Gospel Community.
Conclusion: Christian community is based out of God’s triune nature. Where we freely love God out of the overflow of his own love within the trinity he loves us. The Father says look at my son, the son says look at my father, and the spirit says look at Christ who leads you to my Father. But if we view church as a toll for our own private improvement, we are robbing ourselves of the community that cleanses us and is used by God to grow in and bless others.
Are we walking in obedience to what God has called us to? If not why are we waiting? And what does that hesitancy reveal about our hearts?
