Homogeneous Community vs. Gospel Community

Timmy Brister has a great post about what Gospel community should look like. I especially appreciated this section:

So when an elderly white woman is praying over a black young professional who is baby-sitting for a Hispanic family with six kids, what does this say to a non-Christian when they first encounter it? When the poor have equal standing with the rich, when the new believer struggling with his new identity in Christ and the sins of the past and is encouraged and established rather than looked down upon and judged, when the home-schooling family shares a meal together with the public-schooling family, when things like this are being done in community, what is on display? The gospel which has transformed their lives, informed their new identity, and formed a new humanity where walls of division have been broken down.

This is so much harder than homogeneous groups. It is so much messier and challenging. But is so much more glorious and gospel-honoring. It is not efficient, so pragmatism will not be it’s best advocate. It does not have as its reference point your personal needs, so the spiritual consumer will not like it. But those driven by the gospel and genuinely want to see it lived out in their lives will love it. Jesus loved, served, and gave. His focus the Father first, others second, and Himself last. And the attitude and actions of Jesus are manifested in a community where His reign and rule brings a new order in a new community when the kingdom has been established in their hearts.

Read the rest.