Jesus Shaped Community

Authentically living: Meditations on community part three

2014-08-18T22:34:43+00:00By Joel|Abandonment, discipleship, Jesus Shaped Community|

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” - Jesus the Christ (John 13:34-35)It's no wonder, and is a beautiful fact, that Christianity is done in community. True, there are hermits, and those on the fringe who feel called to abandon themselves in the place of solitude and singularity of one-on-one communion with the Lord. However, I believe that is more the exception than the rule. Christianity, I believe, is meant to be lived out in community with one another because humanity is meant to be lived out with [...]

Definitive Prayer: Meditations on Community Part Two

2014-08-18T22:34:43+00:00By Joel|Abandonment, Jesus Shaped Community, prayer, The Dangerous Kind|

Discipleship is crucial to the life of the Church/Christianity. But crucial to discipleship is a culture of prayer. I do believe that being a "house of prayer [for all nations]" is an underlying identity of the Church. My experience with the (primarily) program driven church in the U.S. is that true discipleship is rare. I mean we have Bible studies, small groups, and meetings, but intentionally coming together for learning how to do Jesus-stuff is often not done. I've even experienced outreach efforts without intercession for those who are intended to be reached. Now, my goal isn't to complain. My goal is to point out, encourage, maybe even confess :-) We must abandon to Christ if [...]

A Living Together Reality: Meditations on Community Part One

2014-08-26T03:23:50+00:00By Joel|Abandonment, discipleship, Jesus Shaped Community, The Dangerous Kind|

A few weeks ago I grabbed lunch with a friend at Red Robin. Munching on Buffalo Chicken Strips we were talking about the churches that we were serving at, and about where the Lord is leading in those place. Community is the word that came up. God has me (and some leadership of our church) parked on that, and what it looks like in discipleship. My friend then mentioned another conversation that he had where the person shared his dislike of the word community: arguing that it is a buzzword, and not found in the New Testament. While "community" is mentioned once in Acts, depending on your translation, the word 'family [of believers]' appears a lot. [...]

Life together: telling it like it is

2014-08-26T03:07:21+00:00By Joel|Bonhoeffer, Jesus Shaped Community|

As I was finishing up my sociology degree, I started to compile a number of books that I wanted to read as 'fun.' However, most of the books that I compiled were books that I've read before. One of these dusty collections of awe-inspiring devotion to Christ were the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I have, time and time again, read The Cost of Discipleship, but this time around with new passion to understand him from the stance of his significance to society (including the society of the Church), I began to delve into his thought starting with his work on community: Life Together (1954). As I slowly gnawed on this five chapter work, I started to [...]