“Authentic Christian faith, while always personal, is never private — it’s inevitably embedded in community. . . . When we turn off our WEIRD lenses, the Jesus we encounter will likely be more challenging than our personalized version. He’ll make demands we’d prefer to ignore, call us to forms of community we might find uncomfortable, and challenge cultural assumptions we take for granted.”- Kyle Idleman and Mark E. Moore
Kyle Idleman and Mark E. Moore conclude Chapter 5 of The Missing Messiah with five ways for us to embrace a fuller, more accurate picture of Jesus.
Shift #1: From Personal Devotions to Communal Reading. First, Kyle and Mark urge, supplement private Bible reading with communal practices. For example, join a group that reads Scripture together. Above all, find a church that prioritizes reading the Bible and treats it as the inspired Word of God.
Shift #2: From Individual Spirituality to Shared Practice. To embrace spiritual disciplines, you must practice with others. Because such practices embed our faith in relationships.
Shift #3: From Consumer Worship to Participatory Gathering. Rather than just receive a church service, seek ways to contribute to it. Or, Kyle and Mark suggest simply approach worship with this question: “How can I love God and others?” rather than “What am I getting from this experience?”
Shift #4: From Personal Salvation to Kingdom Participation. In addition, the authors exhort, reframe your understanding of salvation. Include individual forgiveness as well as participation in God’s redemptive work in the world. Hence, in this framework, salvation takes place as a personal transaction and in the context of God’s Kingdom and redemptive work.
Shift #5: From Digital Faith to Embodied Community. Finally, online resources supplement but fail to replace the embodied community of believers. Thus, physical proximity matters. As Kyle and Mark exhort:
“The default setting for church should be a physical place, where you can read someone’s body language, exchange a hug, hear the Word of God read aloud, see a need firsthand, and have in- person conversations.”
Today’s question: How essential is community to authentic Christian faith? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Messianic TSA PreCheck?”