Discussion

I like that it reduces the number of items and simplifies it. The third section, if preached on and explained well, can still encompass everything from the first version: “I live in a way that helps others experience God’s unconditional love” covers what I categorized as radical hospitality and evangelism, and “I use my gifts to help restore the world to right relationship with God and each other” encompasses what I categorized as social justice and Spirit-empowered.

There’s also something clean and easy to remember about all three now being phrased in relation to God. I think it masks some of the ways this is about the community of believers, but what it loses in that I think it makes up for in being easy to remember.

What would this look like?

My theory is that these categories can be used as a plumb line for a church:

• Is the congregation consistently living out all of these?
• Do the programs support these?

You can still have fun, social programs/events; the point is to monitor for if programs start to have programs or events that are more about maintaining an insider culture or continuing to do things “the way we always have” even when it starts to inhibit the church’s ability to do these core functions.

How do we shape the ways in which we gather, worship, care for one another, engage in the sacraments, and live out our faith so that we are accomplishing these core features of Christian community?