Insights about Christian community (church, fellowships, small groups) with most insights coming from Bonhoeffer's "Life Together"

1. Christian Community:
What are we doing here?
... insights from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s "Life Together"

2. Why is this so hard?
Why do we keep having bonding issues?
Answer: our sinfulness (2 Cor 5:14-15)
Sin is anti-social
But church community ministry is intended to be hard
Your troubles are an evidence of God's grace and ministry
We must see Christian communities as a means, not an ends
The main ministry of the church happens when its
members are sent into the world

3. Trouble with -isms
Individualism
But: Eph 2:19
Consumerism
But: Eph 4:1-3
Privatism
But: Matt 6:10

4. Secret Destroyer: Dreams/Ideals
Like unrealistic expectations in marriage, or like how a
parent demands the child to fulfill a destiny or dream
"Those who love their dream of a Christian community
more than the Christian community itself become
destroyers of that Christian community even though their
personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and
sacrificial." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")

5. Gathered by Whom, Not by What
Only Christ can be our peace (Eph 2:14)
He's Lord over our community of faith (John 17:22-23)
"Christian community means community through Jesus
Christ and in Jesus Christ. There is no Christian
community that is more than this, and none that is less
than this. ...... We belong to one another only through and
in Jesus Christ." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")
Not an ideal, but a present reality

6. Thankfulness is the Key
We are privileged to be with other Christians
Do you have the longing? (2 Tim 1:4, 1 Thess 3:10, Ps 42:4)
"It is easily forgotten that the community of Christians is a
gift of grace from the kingdom of God ...... Therefore, let
those who until now have had the privilege of living a
Christian life together with other Christians praise God's
grace from the bottom of their hearts." (Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")
It is an antidote to ideals, complaints, etc.

7. Harvest Mentality
Growth is a process, not a series of events
You reap what you sow, and you sow daily (Gal 6:7-10)
"To the degree that you daily, in some way, continue to live
for yourself, to that degree you daily need to be reconciled
to God and to one another." (Paul David Tripp, "What Did
You Expect?")

8. Practice Daily Thankfulness
Think about this: "We prevent God from giving us the
great spiritual gifts prepared for us because we do not give
thanks for daily gifts." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life
Together")
Focus on the small things to be thankful, not just the big
things
Thankfulness is a part of being continuously filled with the
Spirit (Eph 5:18-21)

9. Practice Daily Thankfulness
"If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian
community in which we have been placed, even when there
are no great experiences, no noticeable riches, but much
weakness, difficulty, and little faith -- and if, on the
contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything
is so miserable and so insignificant and does not at all live
up to our expectations -- then we hinder God from letting
our community grow according to the measure and riches
that are there for us all in Jesus Christ." (Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")

10. Duty & Debt to Each Other
Behave like Christ to each other
"God put this Word into the mouth of human beings so
that it may be passed on to others. When people are deeply
affected by the Word, they tell it to other people. God has
willed that we should seek and find God's living Word in
the testimony of other Christians, in the mouths of human
beings. Therefore, Christians need other Christians who
speak God's Word to them." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life
Together")

11. Duty & Debt to Each Other
We are God's visible manifestation to each other by following
Christ's example (Rom 15:7, Eph 4:32, 1 Cor 11:1, Eph 5:1-2, 1 John
3:16)
Based on what Christ already did, not WWJD
"What God did to us, we then owed to others. The more we
received, the more we were able to give; and the more meager our
love for one another, the less we were living by God's mercy and
love. Thus God taught us to encounter one another as God has
encountered us in Christ." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")
This also means that one sure way to measure how genuine our
faith is is by looking at how we treat other Christians in our
community of faith

12. Weaknesses Allowed Here
We do not treat ourselves as having “arrived,” but we're on
the journey.
"What may appear weak and insignificant to us may be
great and glorious to God." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life
Together")
"The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly
useless people, from everyday Christian life in community
may actually mean the exclusion of Christ." (Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")

13. Real Love
Self-centered love isn't real love, but it can look very real (1
Cor 13:3)
Self-centered Love Christ-centered Love
Seeks to receive love in return Loves unconditionally
Aims for ideals, even for love Aims for Christ's glory
Cannot love enemies Can love enemies & the weak
Tries to have a nice experience Seeks to produce fruit
Is often intensely emotional Seeks to propagate truth
Clings to people, can't be alone Access others only thru Christ

14. Real Love
We are bound together by faith, love, and truth, not by
experience, emotions, and dreams
"Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community.
Such people will only do harm to themselves and to the
community. ...... But the reverse is also true. Whoever
cannot stand being in community should beware of being
alone." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")

15. Community in Practice
Encourage each other (Eph 5:19, Col. 3:16)
Speak and sing God's Word to each other; let the Bible
dominate your speech
Eat with each other (Eccl 2:24-25)
Enjoy, celebrate God's physical gifts, and take rest with
each other
Help each other (James 2:15-16, Gal 6:2)

16. Community in Practice
Pray for each other (1 Thess 5:17)
"A Christian community either lives by the intercessory
prayers of its members for one another, or the community will
be destroyed. I can no longer condemn or hate other
Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they
cause me." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")
"Offering intercessory prayer means nothing other than
Christians bringing one another into the presence of God,
seeing each other under the cross of Jesus as poor human
beings and sinners in need of grace. ...... Thus it is clear that
intercessory prayer is also a daily service Christians owe to
God and one another." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")

17. Community in Practice
See each other as more important than yourself (Phil 2:3,
Mark 10:43, Matthew 23:8)
"Do not believe that you have made any progress in the
work of sanctification, if you do not feel deeply that you
are less than all others" (Thomas a Kempis)
Listen to each other (Rom 15:7)
"The first service one owes to others in the community
involves listening to them. Just as our love for God
begins with listening to God's Word, the beginning of
love for other Christians is learning to listen to
them." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")

18. Community in Practice
Do not gossip about each other (Rom 1:29)
"God did not make others as I would have made them.
God did not give them to me so that I could dominate
and control them, but so that I might find the Creator
by means of them." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life
Together")
Admonish each other (Gal. 6:1)
"Nothing can be more cruel than that leniency which
abandons others to their sin." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
"Life Together")

19. Community in Practice
Confess to one another (Prov 28:13, James 5:16a)
We must be allowed to be sinners to each other
"The mask you wear in the presence of other people won't get
you anywhere in the presence of God. ...... You do not have to go
on lying to yourself and to other Christians as if you were without
sin. You are allowed to be a sinner." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life
Together")
"Sin that has been spoken and confessed has lost all of its power.
It has been revealed and judged as sin. It can no longer tear apart
the community. Now the community bears the sin of the
individual believer, who is no longer alone with this evil but has
"cast off " this sin by confessing it and handing it over to
God." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life Together")

20. Community in Practice
In your solitude, live a disciplined life
"Individuals must be aware that even their hours of
being alone reverberate through the community. In their
solitude they can shatter and tarnish the community or
they can strengthen and sanctify it. Every act of self-
discipline by a Christian is also a service to the
community. ...... Every member serves the whole body,
contributing either to its health or to its ruin, for we are
members of one body not only when we want to be, but
in our whole existence." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Life
Together")