Uncategorized Murray McLellan on 21 Aug 2008 10:02 am
A Community-centered Gospel
Here are some outline notes from Steve Timmis’ first session at the Total Church Conference. Leave a comment if you found them profitable and it may motivate me to post some more!
Total Church Session One: “A Community Centered Gospel.”
Speaker: Steve Timmis
Key Scripture:
Col. 1:3-6
Mark 1: 14-15
Eph 1:9-10
1st Peter 2:
What is the Gospel:
- In Col. 1:3-6 Paul begins be reminding them of the gospel and its delightful simplicity.
- Gospel Is “The Word of Truth.”
- The Gospel “bears-fruit.” It works. (Question: What is the fruit of what you currently believe?)
- The Gospel is a working word to a dying world about God’s glorious Son.
- We don’t need a bunch of “new” strategies. We need the conviction that the Gospel is “God’s Word that works.”
- Fruit of Belief and Dis-belief.
- We should not be afraid of pointing out the benefits of the Gospel.
- People can make Jesus to be anything-But the true Jesus Christ is The Son of God – the Jesus who fulfills all the OT prophecies – the One through whom God makes Himself known in the world. Jesus is the content of the gospel (Mark 1:1; 14-15)
- The Gospel is the eminent arrival of the Kingdom because of the arrival of the King. So the appropriate response to that arrival is repentance and faith. (Repentance and faith are not the gospel, but rather the appropriate response to the Gospel).
- Evangelicals have a problem with understanding the gospel. In The West we think Gospel as Individual which is truth-but there is more than that. In the Bible is says the Gospel is about a people, a community.
-The ultimate purpose of God is an exalted Christ with HIS people. Christ without his people is incomplete.
What is the Church
- Most assume church as an event or a meeting.
- We know what we believe by how we behave. Core belief is revealed by how we behave
- Based on behavior, most people church is an event. We spend so much man-power and money on one weekly event.
- The meeting is a part but only one part of the community relating.
- We should be in a steady state of meeting with the King and with each other-eating together, celebrating together, praying together, weeping together as a people living together as the people of God.
- The community of God tells the people that how they live IS THE FUTURE-its a foretaste of the future. We are called to live now as we will live then.
- Timmis is not anti gathering. Just must balance it. We need a more-complete Gospel.
- God’s call in the OT is to live life together, to care for those in need, to celebrate at the festivals. God wanted to be near His people. God was concerned about how the covenanted community lives together. It is our lives together that gives credence and substance to our words.
-If we live by meeting to meeting then we fail to live as Christ called us.
- The world can’t dismiss a community of believers who live distinct lives across the globe.
- We must have a missional identity in our communities ( politics, associations,
- Mission is that which is inform and defines our lives. It shapes our action.
- The Local church is a phenomenon of grace.
- The Church is to be God’s temple filled with God’s glorious presence spread throughout the earth.
Q&A
- Professional view of pastors leadership is ungodly and needs to be repentant of. Pastors serve the people.
- We have to allow our lives to be lived amongst each other.
