Community

The excellent book "Total Church" by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester (a very easy and stimulating read) has some stirring challenges to the way we think about church and community.

"We are not save individually and then choose to join the church as if it were some club or support group." (p.37)

"I am a person-in-community. I cannot be who I am without regard to other people." (p.39)

"My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ." (p.39)

"The prevailing view of life today is that of an individual standing on his or her own, heroically 'juggling' various responsibilities... An alternative model is to view our various activities and responsibilities as spokes of a wheel. At the centre or hub of life is not me as an individual, but us as members of the Christian community. Church is not another ball for me to juggle, but that which defines who I am and gives Christlike shape to my life." (p.42-43)

"In our experience, people are often enthusiastic about community until it impinges on their decision-making. For all their rhetoric, they still expect to make decisions by themselves for themselves. We assume we are masters of our own lives." (p.45)