We’ve been talking a lot about gospel-centered community here lately – particularly what does it look like.  Generally what I find is that it looks nothing like I think it should.  It is far messier and life-disrupting than I would have ever thought.  This was brought home to me by a section in the book, Total Church. 

G. K. Chesterton said, “The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world…The reason is obvious.  In a large community we can choose our companions.  In a small community our companions are chosen for us.”  Community has been insightfully defined as the place where the person you least want to live with always lives!  Responding to this, Philip Yancey says, “We often surround ourselves with the people we most want to live with, thus forming a club or clique, not a community.  Anyone can form a club; it takes grace, shared vision, and hard work to form a community.”  We might also add that it takes a miracle that only God himself can perform.  But it is in such a community that disciples are made.  To be a community of light from which the light of Christ will emanate we need to be intentional in our relationships – to love the unlovely, forgive the unforgivable, embrace the repulsive, include the awkward, accept the weird.  It is in contexts such as these that sinners are transformed into disciples who obey everything King Jesus has commanded.

We can do this because Christ and his kingdom community has loved us who were unlovely, unforgivable, repulsive, awkward and weird.