More Total Church

Some final thoughts from this wonderful and highly commended book.

On discipleship and training:
Others should learn truth not only from preaching but from lives that display the truth that has been preached!
Keep saying the obvious or people will forget.

On spirituality:
"Biblical spirituality is not about contemplation; it is about reading and meditating on the word of God. It is not about detached silence; it is about passionate petition. It is not about solitude; it is about participation in community. ... It [biblical spirituality] is centred on the gospel and rooted in the context of the Christian community." (p. 137)
Yes, a necessary corrective to too many forms of spirituality which are self seeking and self serving. See also Peter Adam 'Hearing God's Words', Apollos (IVP) 2004.
Union with Christ is the beginning of Christian spirituality, not it's goal!

On prayer the suggestion is made that we should prioritise prayer with others over prayer alone. So long as we are not saying that one is better than the other, there is truth in our learning to pray together, and our times of prayer shared with others encouraging and strengthening our times of prayer alone.

On theology:
"Theology must be in the service of teh church and its mission. Authentic theology must be shaped by what we might call a missionary-hermeneutic. Theology divorced from this context is essentially barren, self-referential and indulgent." (p. 152)
There is no theology apart from or outside of the community of faith. This position, while true, needs to be rigorously defended today.

On apologetics: (I really like this comment)
"The rejection of revelation is only a symptom of an underlying problem. ... The underlying issue is not a rejection of the possibility of revelation, but a rejection of the actuality of revelation. In other words, the underlying problem is not revelation per se, but what is revealed - our need for a Saviour." (p. 161)

An accurate analysis of the malaise afflicting the church in our days. This surely is what Romans 1:18ff is about, the rejection of God, the rejection of the gospel because we don't like it.

On a theology of the cross:
"We begin to see the relevance of the theology of the cross when we start to consider what forms a theology of glory takes today. Liberalism can be labelled a theology of glory, for it argues that God is known through human reason. Sacramentalism claims we encounter God through the symbols and rituals of the church. Creation spiritualities can also take the form of theologies of glory whether it is the sentiment expressed in 'nearer to God in a garden' or the more developed theology of someone like Matthew Fox. Power evangelism, too, looks for the revelatino of God in acts of power, arguing that miracles are an essential part of effective mission. And mysticism says that God is known through spiritual experiences or contemplative exercises." (p. 167)
Against all this, we know God through the message of the cross. Human wisdom does not recognise divine wisdom.

I think it is good that my last word on this great book is on the cross of the Lord Jesus, which so powerfully and clearly shapes and influences the authors and their experience of church. If only the cross were more clearly at the centre of our church life.

Total Church - In Practice

After two opening chapters, principles on gospel and community, the second and final section of Total Church is on the practice of gospel and community.

On Evangelism.
p. 53 - Much evangelism is skewed towards me and my needs. But, the gospel is about God exercising his rule through his Messiah for his glory.

I've been preaching on Elijah in our evening services and meeting felt needs is a principle aspect of Baal worship, in deed all idol worship. You can here themes from NT Wright on the gospels in this comment on God's rule through his Messiah. I like Wright's work and it is good to see this kind of earthing of it in evangelism.

There is a great section on pp. 60-61 on the vital importance in evangelism of ordinary people doing ordinary things.

On Church Planting
p. 85 makes the claim that church planting is the best way to be missionary. This may be so, but surely the 'best way' is not the only way, and may not be appropriate for all Christian communities.
On the same page a brilliant section on Christian community being at the heart of mission. Mission is not about one, or a group within the community engaging in some 'mission' activity, but about the whole community living as disciples of Jesus.
It seems to me that the purpose of election is mission - on this see Gen 11-12, Chris Wright 'The Mission of God' and other places.

There is a challenge given to congregation who are celebrating anniversaries - 50th, 100th, 125th! What are they celebrating and do they become focused upon their past, their tradition and heritage rather than focusing on their mission in the present and the future?

I hope these short comments of mine are encouraging you to buy and read this book.

Total Church = Total Community

More from this excellent book.

Chester and Timmis are totally into community. This is the big challenge to church as we've always known it. It isn't enough to speak to new people who come on a Sunday, for Total Church community is much more than that.

On p. 48 we read of how identity as Christians is found in a Christian community, and this Christian community is Christ's new community.

For many of us experiences of church are different from what we hope Christ's new community will be like. We find the old ways of being in community - competition, aggression, fear, gossiping - all the old destructive patterns of life. It is not a new challenge that the church should be a new community, a new kind of community (perhaps for a new kind of Christian!). We have all felt the force of this challenge before. I think in this book it comes with a fresh power and import.

Where do we seek our identity? In Christ. Well Jesus is usually the answer. But, what does this mean? It cannot mean less than the church becoming a whole life community in which we find our new identity in Christ.

I really like the thought on p. 38. A weakness exists in building my own identity rather than receiving one constructed by God's grace.

What freedom there is in not having to find myself, in not needing to be affirmed by any other than God in his grace. This I think is one of the most frightening ideas in the book, I must almost give up my own identity to receive a new one in grace.

No doubt this is included in cross bearing self-denial, but does not demean self or diminsh the worth placed upon me by a God whose Son died for me.

If only church could be a place where genuine grace shaped identity is born and nurtured in a community of those growing in the new, grace-given identities.

Total Church: Gospel and Theology

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church: A radical reshaping around gospel and community. Pub IVP, 2007

This was one of my summer reading books. I can't commend it highly enough, if you've already got the book, read it, if not buy it and read it.

Written from the experience of church in The Crowded House the authors write from a conviction that community is at the heart of the gospel and should be at the heart of church.

In the first section of the book they write of gospel and theology in relation to church.

p. 16 - gospel-centred means two things: word-centred and mission-centred. The gospel is a word to proclaim.

What a challenge to much of our church life in CofS! So often God's word is marginalised by our fighting over it and whatever we mean by mission we can hardly be described as mission-centred. Do we agree that the church is to be gospel-centred, and if so, is this what we mean by gospel-centred?

p. 18 "The theology that matters is not the theology we profess, but the theology we practise."

We are so good, and quick, to argue for our own chosen theological position and to defend the purity of our profession. What would happen, what difference would it make if we promoted our theology by our living? When, for example, we claim to hold to the doctrines of grace, why do we so seldom practise grace? Here's a theological challenge, why not, everytime we state to ourselves or in public a theological position we commit to immediately identifying a practise, a way of life implied by that theological position - and then living this theology in our lives day by day.

p. 36 writing on the difference between full-time and part-time in ministry - we need to model whole-life gospel-centred missional living.

We really have lost the thread of the ministry of the people of God, we diminish all ministry by thinking and speaking about full-time, or paid-ministry. Each disciple of the Lord Jesus should be whole-life engaged in discipleship, whole-life engaged in gospel mission. How do we model this? What does it mean in Scotland in 2009? Is whole-life gospel-centred missional living the age old plan of God to save the world one life at a time?

As you can see, I have been greatly challenged by this book. More to follow.