Total Church moves from the outward focus to the inward focus that sustains the outward focus. I like that they started with the outward focus. Churches, just as C.S. Lewis said about sinners, tend to be curved inward. Rare is the church that is to outward focused. Most struggle against being ingrown, housebound and narcissistic.
They seek to maintain that dual fidelity to the gospel word and the gospel community as they seek to teach one another to obey everything Jesus has commanded. This is the essence of discipleship.
“The means by which sinners are evangelized, the gospel word and the gospel community, are the means by which sinners are discipled. We continue to “evangelize” one another as Christians because it continues to be the gospel message with which we exhort and encourage one another. The good news that gives life is the good news that transforms, while the community that incarnates the gospel truth for the sinner is the community that incarnates gospel truth for the saint.”
I could not have said this better. While we usually affirm the necessity of the gospel word, we often neglect the need for the gospel community. Our churches often, intentionally, become too big for meaningful relationships. Our gospel communities should look to begin new gospel communities through church planting to maintain quality life-on-life relationships. They quote Chesterton:
“The man who lives in a small community lives in a much bigger world … The reason is obvious. In a large community we can choose our companions. In a small community our companions are chosen for us.”
The point of that being you associate with people you wouldn’t choose to associate with. People there will rub you the wrong way, annoy you, challenge you etc. This is where love is learned! This is how sanctification takes place: the gospel lived out in the midst of the mess of relationships. We do not change in isolation, for so few of our sins are revealed. But in community …. there we learn just how selfish, mean and petty we really are. There the gospel word MUST be believed for us to remain sane and live with other sinners such as ourselves.
It is in light of this that they see much of discipleship as taking place informally. Again, the shift away from program to relationship. The relationship may be established and maintained in a programmed small group, but much of the heart work takes place as we talk over coffee/tea, dine, watch the kids play a game etc. It is about time, relationships and gospel intentionality. By that is meant intentionally connecting all of life with the gospel- talking about it, praying in light of it and more. Too often it is an add-on in our relationships. This is “more difficult” or “more time consuming” than any program is to manage. But this is how we learn to practice the Word (James 1).
“Let us make a bold statement: truth cannot be taught effectively outside of close relationships. The reason is that truth is not primarily formal; it is dynamic. The truth of the gospel becomes compelling as we see it transforming lives in the rub of daily, messy relationships.”
This is also the context for pastoral care- addressing those deeper, more persistent issues. Those who struggle with addictions, depression, grief etc. need the gospel word and gospel community, just in larger doses than the ordinary sinner along the way. They develop a short argument for biblical counseling that does not deny medical conditions, but sees the gospel as addressing all of life.
“Pastoral care is therefore first and foremost the ability to address the gospel word to the problems of people’s lives. If our primary identity is as persons-in- community, then our ability to thrive will be shaped by our involvement in community. Life as it should be lived is life-in-community. Community is not merely an added benefit to me. It is an essential part of what it means to be human. And this means that the Christian community is essential to what it means to be a Christian.”
This takes pastoral care out of the therapy setting (primarily) and back into the setting of gospel intentionality in the context of relationship. This creates a much healthier community and healthier Christians.
Cavman Considers 
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