Friday, December 05, 2014

A Taste Of Simple Church: Unity Within Diversity

Here is a little taste of what can be found in Simple Church: Unity Within Diversity, taken from my chapter on A Church That Is Composed of Peacemakers:

What exactly does it mean to be a “peacemaker”? The Scriptures,
taken as a unified whole, give us a far more comprehensive
vision of peacemaking that goes beyond “Don’t shoot
people or beat them up.” The vision for the Church as a
community of peacemakers is nothing less than a living out
of the Gospel: loving our enemies; service as the highest calling;
humility, love, and self-denial as the most precious attributes;
counting others as more important than ourselves.
All of these notions run completely counter to our prevailing
culture. More often than not the Church reflects the “me first”
attitude of the culture rather than the “enemy love” attitude of
Christ. Setting aside our own safety, preferences, and wants
in favor of others is an otherworldly manifestation of the as
yet to be culminated rebirth of all things under the direct eternal
reign of Christ. Something so supernatural can only result 
from the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

Pretty good stuff right? Maybe not but I kinda liked it. The book is chock full of excellent writing and you ought to check it out whether you are into "simple church" or not because it really gets at some of the most fundamental questions of what it means to be the church and how we live as the church. Buy your copy at Amazon!

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