When you consider the fact that God calls those He has called out front the world, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and His own special people, it should be obvious that He intended the church to be the ideal form of community. What group could have more in common and closeness than one made alive by His Spirit and called for His purposes into His family and household?
But when we look at the world, we can see a different picture. While the church has a greater sense of community than the world, it does not seem to be a light to the nations in this regard. In fact, over the last sixty years, the American sense of community has been breaking down. And while some people want to accuse technology of causing this breakdown, in most cases, technology only facilitates the things we already desired.
One of the things that has happened in the church is that we have shifted our focus from God saving the church as one body to be his bride, and instead have almost exclusively focused on God saving each of us as individuals. And because a strong sense of community requires one to focus, not on himself but on the group and what they hold in common, this singular focus wars against the sense of community that God desires for the church.
In this episode, we want to look at the ways that God has designed the church to be the model community for the world, and how the practices He instituted and called the church to should strengthen rather than weaken this sense of community. Please join us as we discuss this very necessary topic.
Listen to the audio version here: https://theconqueringtruth.com/2025/04/gods-blueprint-for-community-how-the-church-should-lead-the-way-ep-214-audio/
Thumbnail image by Thomas Hawk on Flickr under CC BY-NC 2.0
Timecodes
00:00:00 What Is Community
00:03:09 The Church’s Example
00:10:43 Small Groups
00:13:58 Our Mission
00:26:05 Authority
00:34:53 Shared Vision
00:45:36 Disasters
00:56:33 One Body
01:06:05 Hospitality
01:14:29 Impacting the Community
Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson