Episode 34: Community

When you hear the word community, what do you think of? The popular TV show? Your neighborhood? Your church? This week, Dan is back on the podcast as he expands on Sunday’s message, and explores what a community in Christ looks like with Kevin and Brandon.

 

Highlights

Exclusion & Inclusion - 2:27

• Kevin and Brandon look back on middle school.
• The Apostle Paul’s take on inclusion
• Examining the dynamic of early Jews and Gentiles.

 

Breaking down the walls of hostility - 13:53

• Where is our identity coming from?
• How the TV show Lost illustrates our identity shift.
• Discovering your uniqueness in Christ.

 

Looking at community through the lens of new creation - 29:44

• Why do we sometimes resist community?
• Discipling from a private faith towards faith in community.
• A new family in Christ, and why we should ‘lean in’.

 

Quotables

• “I think Paul is trying to say that you're gonna always have this hostility and this separation, and as many good intentioned people, secular people who are trying to, you know, tear down those walls. It's the gospel that tears down those walls. That's where the unity is found under Christ…” - Dan
• “The gospel allows a way to work through all layers of sin. The individual that needs that transformation uproot the ways in which we base our identity on walls of hostility…” - Kevin
• “…Jesus comes in and he creates a new humanity. I think sometimes we think we have to completely get rid of who we were. You know, we use some of Paul's language, you know, the old self we're like, ‘Oh no, I'm not that person anymore’. But in reality, like what you guys are talking about, this is us bringing who God created us to be, those pieces of, of who we are and bringing them into alignment with God's new humanity”. - Brandon
• “…what we're being discipled toward here with this becoming the people of God, is that it isn't private. It's public, it's community. We cannot grow, uh, unless we are in community.” - Dan

Resources & References

• Ephesians 2:11-13
• 1 Samuel 8 - Israel asks for a King
• Lost (TV Show)
• Alone (TV Show)
• Seinfeld (TV Show)
• M*A*S*H (TV Show)
• S.H.A.P.E Test (example)
• Philippians 2