One thing that is a great challenge in the western church model is the desire to compartmentalize church. In many churches the family is segregated. The problem with this approach is that individuals within the church do not get to experience the value of living life with people that are at completely different stages of life.
Tim Brister laments this and challenges the church to recapture a gospel centered approach to living life as the people of God. Here is a excerpt from his post…
True fellowship among believers comes when shared life is sharing the gospel to one another, and the necessary fuel for the mission comes from the gospel who takes consumers of God’s Word become doers of God’s Word.
Gospel communities, then are constituted with deep unity and radical diversity in the following ways:
- Diversity in spiritual maturity (fathers, young men, and children as seen in 1 John 2:12-14 all together)
- Diversity in stages of life (elderly with families with young professional with single mom etc.)
- Diversity in race and ethnicity (black, Hispanic, white, Asian, etc.)
- Diversity in socio-economic status (wealthy, poor, blue-collar)
- Diversity in political views (Republican, Democrat, Independent)
Why is this so crucial? By being around people who are not like us, we are reminded that Jesus came to a people completely not like Himself. He came to dwell among us, to serve us by giving His life, and accomplished His mission and then entrusted it to His followers to do as He had done. When we prefer a low-maintenance, spiritual “clean” and mature group of believers to fellowship with, we are acting contrary to the gospel. It does not put it on display. We put the world’s categories on display. The clean and supposedly low-maintenance and knowledgeable people (the religious folk) Jesus avoided, but instead He got messy with the tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, and demon-possessed and formed a community that had been transformed by the gospel of the kingdom…When deep unity is formed by the gospel, the radical diversity therein will be like facets of a diamond that display the brilliance of God’s glory in the redemptive work of His Son and the restoration work He’s begun. Click here for complete article.