Community in the Body

I have now been a church planter for about one month. The “church of the mind” that we have experienced over the past two years is now this infant that has just been born. Like a newborn, GCC is very vulnerable and impressionable. Will our statements, that look so good on paper, be just that or will they really impact the life and culture of our little church?

At GCC we really want to value authentic community. You might say, “Wow, pretty brilliant dude, what church wants a bunch of inauthentic people who don’t care about each other?” Talking about “community” is a cool topic of discussion amongst Christian leaders of my generation. Authentic community is difficult because we all desperately want community yet it is so elusive.

The problem is our own sinfulness. We want to eat the cake without getting fat. We want to have lifelong close friendships without being honest about our spiritual struggles. Men want wives who respect them without having to live respectable lives. Women want strong passionate husbands but don’t want to follow them. We want real friendships at a church, but we want to come in to the service late and not attend small groups and not be honest in an accountability time. We want to be part of something great, but instead sit on the sidelines and complain and act like that is the enlightened thing to do. Finally, we want a deep fulfilling abundant life with God, but we don’t want to stop looking at pornography and we don’t want to share the gospel with others and we don’t want to forgive others for hurting our feelings.

I love to talk about community, but in reality I would rather leave it at the theory conversational level than forgive my best-friends when they hurt my feelings. After Paul unpacks this beautiful picture of life with Christ and this beautiful picture of the Church he gets real practical and says, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).

Ross and I desperately want the people of GCC to experience the grace of God in all areas of their lives. This means that we want them to experience authentic community. We know that we cannot program that into existence. This is the real experiment with this thing. The only thing we know to do is lead GCC by modeling true authentic community.

There are more things that can go wrong in a church plant than can go right. Division within a core group is something that can easily happen and destroy a young infant church. I have seen staff division first hand and it is ugly and has nothing to do with Christ or His gospel. I have talked with guys on church staffs who in instants of honesty have said that they are really being a team player because it affects their paycheck and careers and not because they really love the guys they are “under” nor believe in them.

I want to be clear, I think boundaries and having people in charge is important for the organization of a church. I am not proposing a Brethren form of church. What I am saying is that I am blessed to be able to experience authentic community with Ross Appleton. I believe in Ross Appleton. I trust Ross Appleton. I love Ross Appleton. I am eternally thankful to be getting to serve with Ross Appleton.

I am eternally grateful to the Father in heaven that I have a relationship with Ross that is marked by grace and not fear. You see, Christians are called to live the gospel, not just accept it. We are called to embrace grace, not just experience it once at a church service. The leadership of GCC is far from perfect, but at least I get to serve with someone who is “kind” and “tender-hearted” with me. This means he cares about me and is patient with me. At least I serve with a guy who is “forgiving” with me. This means that when I fail he has been quick to forgive and hang with me.

GCC is anything from perfect, even at these early stages, but at least the leadership is attempting to live the gospel. This means that we are working to “Be kind to one another” and working to be “tender-hearted” and working at “forgiving each other”. We are trying to do this “just as God in Christ also has forgiven” us. If you are in South Austin then come join the vessels of mercy who are simply trophies of grace as we seek to “taste the powers of that Age” (Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, pg41) to come.