At the Margins

This is the handout to accompany a talk I gave about Christian Community at my church’s community group leaders retreat…

Psalm 68:6 God sets the lonely in families

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FORM

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Upward Focused, Inward Connected, Outward Looking

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FUNCTION

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Sharing the Gospel, Maturing in Faith, and Worship of God

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MARKS

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Ephesians 2:19 19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.

Acts 10:9-13 9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Familial (brothers and sisters) with Service and Hospitality to Friend and Stranger

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James 5:13-16 13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Confessing, Praying, and Healing

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Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Worshipful and Correcting

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Romans 8:12-17 12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

God Pursuing, Spirit Seeking, and Suffering Sharing

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John 16:13-14 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

Listening and Discerning

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Romans 12:4-8 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Gift Seeking and Encouraging

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1 Corinthians 13:1-13 1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Luke 6:32-33 32″If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that.

Faithful, Hopeful, and above all Loving (particularly the hard to love)

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Hebrews 4:9-10 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.

Sabbath Keeping

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Luke 3:11 11John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

Redistributive

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2 Corinthians 8:1-5 1And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. 5And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will. 6So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.

Giving

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2 Corinthians 2:5-11 5If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. 7Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

Matthew 5:23-24 23″Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Forgiving & Reconciliation Seeking

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Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Romans 12:14-16 14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Carrying the Burdens of Others, Together—Rejoicing and Mourning Together in Season

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Luke 17:31-32 31″ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Celebration Prone

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Acts 2:42-27 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Daily Communing

Kingdom Works: True Stories About God and His People in Inner City America

Rating: 4 out of 5

Author: Bart Campolo

Year: 2001

Publisher: Vine Books

ISBN: 1569551952

Kingdom Works provides a wonderful group of devotions on urban ministry by one of mission year’s founders, Bart Campolo.

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

Rating: 5 out of 5

Author: Shane Claiborne

Year: 2006

Publisher: Zondervan

ISBN: 0310266300

As I have traveled the country talking with fellow 20-somethings, it has been clear that God is speaking to us in a united voice, however it has been difficult to find the words that correspond with this calling. Shane Claiborne artfully articulates what so many in our generation are hearing. A theologian who truly lives out the Call, he challenges the Church with exceptional love and truth.

The only negative is that in chapter 11, I felt he crossed the line from solidarity with the poor and oppressed to political action. At any rate, it’s a difficult path to navigate and Claiborne does it exceptionally (both in his writing and life)!

I have given away over 150 copies. A must read!

From Brokenness to Community (Harold M. Wit Lectures)

Rating: 5 out of 5

Author: Jean Vanier

Year: 1992

Publisher: Paulist Press

ISBN: 0809133415

In this extremely short book (actually a transcript of a lecture he gave at Harvard), Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, discusses the importance of community. It is in community that we realize our own brokeness and only in community that we can find healing.