"...belonging to a gospel community is counter-cultural. It doesn’t come naturally, because:
- We are sinners. We like to put ourselves first, to do what is easiest and most comfortable for us.
- We are individualists. We tend to see ourselves as having a “me-and-God” relationship, not an “us-and-God” one.
- We are consumerists. We are a “cinema generation”—turn up, be served, go home.
- We are home-owners, not home-sharers. Our houses are where we shut the door on the rest of the world, not places we share with the rest of the church...
... gospel community needs intentional building—requires leading, modelling, scaffolding. We can do church in a way that encourages and supports being together, sharing together, praising and witnessing together—being true community—or we can do church in a way which actually reinforces our natural individualistic consumerist tendencies...
... Gospel teaching in gospel community is where we’ll see gospel growth. It’s worth being as intentional about planning and building community as we are about planning and preparing our teaching."
Carl Laferton, Community: the place for gospel teaching