Together: Community as a Means of Grace
by Larry Duggins
Do you want to explore ways your church can become more involved in your community? Do you want ideas about extending your influence beyond your church walls and Sunday mornings? Do you want your Christianity to be more about serving and less about self-promotion? Then open the pages of Together, and let Larry Duggins and his work at the Missional Wisdom Foundation inspire you. This book is full of ideas to spark your imagination to use your church building for more than Sunday mornings and to use your God-given time for more than just worship services and youth groups.
Duggins promotes the idea that God is everywhere, actively working in all people and in all settings, not just in those times and places and people we consider sacred or holy. And God’s grace is especially experienced within the context of community. Community and social interactions and opportunities for discussion are where we grow and learn and share and care. Creating opportunities for shared experiences and the growth of friendships is where we encounter God within each other. It is also where we give and receive wisdom. It is also where we can meet needs through acts of kindness and love.
Many specific examples are given through the pages of this book of ways particular churches have implemented community through opening their doors to shared work space, community gardens, sewing circles, children’s theater, etc. The ideas are endless. But whether we are opening up space for people to work together, play together, or cook together, we are showing God love by acts of service and becoming conduits for God’s grace. And the goal of each of these endeavors is not to convert people or get people to come to “our” church, but to build true friendships and share life together. And hopefully, as Duggins says, this will create a positive Christian witness to help “overcome the impact of stereotypes and previous damaging experiences. They (the friends we make outside of the Sunday morning context) can connect with Christian people who are not giving them pamphlets, pushing for donations, or pushing them into Sunday school.”
At this point in my own life, I do not have a church building to work with, as I am attending a house church. But I believe there are many opportunities for each of us to get involved in our communities outside of church buildings. There are children’s activities, our own workplaces, soup kitchens, neighborhood groups, or a myriad of other ways to form friendships with those not in our immediate circles. I shy away from putting to much emphasis on the institutional church, for I believe God’s grace and work extend far beyond those walls and draw no lines between “churched” and “unchurched”. So let’s join God in tearing down those walls and lines, and start living as a part of God’s kingdom wherever we are, with whomever we are with, in ways both old and new.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.
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