Total Church

We read through this book together with our community group over the past several weeks. Even though the group wasn't able to discuss every chapter, I decided to go ahead and read the book in its entirety. Discussing the majority of the book with our awesome community group was definitely an incredible blessing; the group really challenged each other as we worked through the chapters, and I am so thankful we were given the opportunity to go through this book with each other.

Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community is written by two men from the UK; Tim Chester and Steve Timmis are cofounders of The Crowded House, a church-planning initiative in Sheffield (northern UK) and are also co directors of The Porterbrook Network, which trains and mentors church planters. In their book, they seek to help reshape our thinking about how the Gospel and community practically play out together in everyday life. Basically, the book looks at how we "do church".

It is divided into several different chapters, including Evangelism, Social Involvement, Church Planting, World Mission, Discipleship and Training, Theology, and Children and Young People, among others. In each chapter, the authors examine how the Church in the West approaches each of these aspects and offers some interesting observations. Though I didn't agree with everything put forth by Chester and Timmis, reading the book was like having the giant light bulb about my head finally switched on.

The focus on community is key. Far too often (especially in the West), we live our lives in isolation; but this is not how it was intended. From the very beginning, God designed us to live together. Today, we may think we live "in community" because we attend church on Sundays and our children go to the Wednesday night youth service and we're maybe even in a Bible study one day a week. But do the people we encounter through these activities and programs really know us? And do we really know them? Do we ever dig deep into each others' lives and allow them to do the same in ours? Are we truly transparent and vulnerable with one another? We don't have to be this way with everyone we encounter, but we must allow ourselves to be a part of a community of other believers. "Doing church" is not about programs and agendas, it's about living life together, and when we honestly live life together- through the trials, tribulations, and joys- then we get a glimpse of the true community God intends for His body.

I highly recommend this book; I think once you read it, you will approach community in a much different light.