The awkward and essential challenge of Christian community. A call to embrace the uncomfortable aspects of Christian community, whether that means believing difficult truths, pursuing difficult holiness, or loving difficult people–all for the sake of the gospel, God’s glory, and our joy.
By Brett McCracken It’s easy to dream about the “perfect” church–a church that sings just the right songs set to just the right music before the pastor preaches just the right sermon to a room filled with just the right mix of people who happen to agree with you on just about everything. Chances are…
From the book: “Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken Growth only comes when there is a challenge, and challenge is not comfortable. This is something that begins every morning when we decide whether to stay comfortably in bed or get up and start the day. A couple of historical…
From the book: “Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken Watch: Jordan Peterson on Jesus. “To be a Christian is to accept the discomfort of a way of life inspired and empowered by a cruel, rugged old cross, a symbol of scorn and degradation.” (pg. 45) “And calling the crowd…
From the book: “Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken From Relational Holiness by Thomas Jay Oord and Michael Lodahl “When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along… When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.” (Romans 13:8-10, The…
From the book: “Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken A common claim today is that there is no actual Truth, that Truth is something purely subjective and personal, little more than a matter of an individual insisting that what they would like to be true IS true, simply because they wish it so….
From the book: “Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken C.S. Lewis wrote about love in his book, The Four Loves. Lewis’ perspective divides love into four parts. He described four different Greek words that referenced four different ways of loving. Storge: Family love is the love between a parent and…
From the book: “Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken The English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible uses the phrase “The Spirit of the Lord” 27 times: in 9 Old Testament books and in 3 New Testament books. It uses the term “Holy Spirit” 99 times: in 2 Old Testament…
From the book: “Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken “Showing up week after week and giving oneself to the building up of the body is a revolutionary act of mission.” (p. 119) If it were not for the Holy Spirit, perhaps it is just a coincidence that The Source is…
From the book: “Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken This doesn’t mean that it is easy. Not even the 1st century churches were without their challenges. Most of the Apostle Paul’s letters were to the churches who were having personnel clashes over theology and other things. At that time, the…
From the book: “Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken “Discipleship is cross-cultural. When we meet Jesus around people who are just like us and then continue to follow Jesus with people who are just like us, we stifle our growth in Christ and open ourselves up to a world of…