Building Gospel-Centered Community
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ScribdTranslationsBuilding Gospel-Centered Community
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ScribdTranslationsPRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN ITAQUERA
BUILDING A CAPTIVATING COMMUNITY
TWO VIEWS OF COMMUNITY? (Study 1)
We cannot stick to natural models and strategies to seek a
church growth, there is no natural formula for that. Given that we have so many
churches with a considerable number of members, but how many of these megachurches are there actually
revelation of the true Gospel of Christ. The impression we have is that they are a
a kind of faith McDonald's, it has an imposing and juicy image to appreciate, but
in the end, its nutritional value is not very worthwhile. So we need to think about it.
type of community we want to build through fellowship in our local churches.
HOW TO BUILD COMMUNITY WITHOUT THE GOSPEL?
WHEN WE ARE LOOKING DEVELOP
FOR ONLY PHENOMENA
DEMOGRAPHICS.
When we try to create groups or small groups in our churches
simply aiming at identity or identification issues, in which entities
similar ones are attracted to each other, which generally ensures success in integration
of new members to the churches. The problem is that there is nothing of the gospel in this integration.
and communion only human factors that strengthen a specific group of your church and
poorly managed can develop ghettos within the walls of the church.
Main tools of demographic phenomena:
Similar life experience: Singles groups, studies for newcomers
married;
Similar Identity: Church of the cowboys, church of the backwoodsmen, church of the...
motorcyclists...;
Similar Causes: Communities with shared passions that seek
honor God.
Similar needs: Programs aimed at meeting
pressing needs.
Similar social position: Sometimes a church gathers only people
important and influential
However, the problem is not building relationships of this nature, once
we naturally seek to be with people who have the same tastes
that our. The problem is that we can build this without God and his
Word.
2. TYPES OF CHURCHES
A church that makes human demographic tools an end in itself
the same, it is seen as churches "THE GOSPEL MORE". These are churches that even preach the
gospel, there are Bible studies, but what unites its members are only their similarities, or
be it, the Gospel plus something else. Right in practice, this church demonstrates and says little
effectively concerning the power of the Gospel.
Now another completely different model of church is 'THE ONE THAT REVEALS THE
"GOSPEL", built through many relationships that would never exist without the
depth of the Gospel in the lives of its members. Revealing through the supernatural the
power of the Gospel, in which people outside their comfort zones are committed to each other
like the others.
3. OUR TREND
Unfortunately, we are tempted countless times to be a Gospel-type church.
but..., as it presents quantitative results in an expressive way. Is there something wrong with that?
Isn't it just a basic law of organizational development? It's important how
Do we attract the crowd if, when people come to church, we announce the gospel to them?
Yes, it is really important. When Christians come together around something that is not the
gospel, they create a community that would probably exist, even if God did not.
to have existed.1
4. THE PURPOSE OF GOD FOR THE CHURCH
Reveal the gospel to your members: Ephesians 2: 1-10;
It's not just about salvation: it's about Unity Ephesians 2: 11-22;
The purpose of this Unit: To make manifest. Ephesians 3:10;
Being noted in two dimensions: In its WIDTH (Ephesians 2:18) and its
DEPTH (Ephesians 2:19).
Width: the Gospel extends to include people as divergent as Jews and Gentiles.2
Depth: It is not just a matter of mutual tolerance between different people, but
a matter of commitment to each other to the point that Paul uses the figures of
ethnicity and family to qualify the type of relationships that should be built in a
local church.
Thus, the supernatural width and depth of community make the glory of a
Invisible God.
1
The Tower of Babel.
2
Matthew 5:46
CONCLUSION
But we should be concerned about the fact that the things we do to attract
people can, indeed, compromise our ability to foster community
supernatural. And God intends for this community to be profoundly more captivating than
those things we do today. But to do that, you may need to rethink many
things of your ministry, such as, for example, your way of seeing small groups, your
targets for Sunday services, your membership policy. So, lay the foundations to have
a community in which you depend on God to grow – a community whose attraction
and beauty will reach the heavens.3
Seminarian Ricardo Araújo Pereira
3
All references were taken from: Dunlop, Jamie. The Engaging Community: where the power of
God Makes a Church Attractive. FIEL Publishing. Kindle Edition.
