Gospel community

Lesson 19: Summary

Lesson 19: Summary

Perhaps it is time to wind up this little experiment. Five months ago, I set out to discern some marks of a gospel community. At the time, I was not sure where I was going. People kept telling me the church had changed drastically since I retired twenty years ago. Many were no longer worshipping, […]

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Lesson 18: Communion

Lesson 18: Communion

The church has always maintained that one place where the Risen Christ encounters us is in the Eucharist. In the gospels, Jesus was constantly sharing meals and this has continued with his coming to us in the Communion meal. One of our readers, Paul,  has observed that my treatment of this challenged two theories of […]

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Lesson 17: Eating Together, part 2

Lesson 17: Eating Together, part 2

After receiving the response to last week’s lesson, I decided to comment further on eating together as a mark of the church. It was an easy decision as I think it addresses one of the biggest spiritual problems in our time, the failure to eat meals together even with our own families. Certainly, as the […]

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Lesson 16: Eating Together

Lesson 16: Eating Together

Another mark of the church evident in the Gospels is eating together. Luke points to that in Acts when he describes the early church worshipping at the temple on the Sabbath and sharing meals with each other in their homes on Sunday. That practice developed into the sacrament we know as the Eucharist, Lord’s Supper, […]

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Lesson 15: Community Beyond Family

Lesson 15: Community Beyond Family

It is obvious one difference between Jesus’ community and the modern Church has to do with his band treating its members with the intimacy usually associated with the biological family. They shared their money and loved unconditionally as would be expected in most families. As soon as we recognize this, many of Jesus’ tough sayings […]

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Lesson 14: Love Enemies

Lesson 14: Love Enemies

My intention was to draw up marks of a gospel community, intending to come up with characteristics of a community that followed Christ Jesus. It seemed simply common sense to begin with accounts of what Jesus himself identified as his message. It quickly became evident to me that a primary mark of Jesus’ message and […]

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Lesson 13: Sharing Wealth

Lesson 13: Sharing Wealth

After reading the gospels, you realize the early church understood their relationship with the Risen Christ meant they could continue enjoying the community they shared with Jesus of Nazareth. Even a casual reading of the first chapters of Acts indicates this is what happened. The Jerusalem community is pictured going together for worship in the […]

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Lesson 12: Now

Lesson 12: Now

I suspect most people think the role of the Church is to offer the means of grace made available by Christ Jesus. They associate this primarily with local gatherings where people worship but also with the larger, even international institutions to which these belong. Some might also speak of the Church as a theoretical body […]

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Lesson 11: The Gospel Community in History

Lesson 11: The Gospel Community in History

Last week, I suggested there is a subversive aspect to the Gospel. “Counterculture” might be a better word as it conveys promoting values that are counter to those of the establishment but not necessarily working actively for its overthrow. Even better would be “prophetic” if it conveyed using Jesus’ teachings to critique society. Certainly, the […]

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Lesson 10: Community in the Gospel

Lesson 10: Community in the Gospel

Let’s get back to defining the Gospel in preparation for thinking about what a Gospel Community might be in our time and place. I started doing that by trying to identify the common features in the four gospels and Paul. Then I got diverted when I naturally turned to John 3:16 which many regard as […]

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