A constant temptation for us as pastors and church leaders is to do something that we think will make our church more appealing to those in our community. This desire is good, since we should all want to see our churches grow. But we must ask ourselves: At what cost? Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop remind readers of The Compelling Community that the gospel, not our creativity, is ultimately what makes a church attractive. Dever and Dunlop purpose to encourage readers to trust in the power of the gospel and to do nothing to stand in its way.
Review
The authors divide this book into four major parts: “A Vision for Community,” “Fostering Community,” “Protecting Community,” and “Community at Work.” In part one, the authors make the point, “You don’t need God to ‘build community’ in a church,” followed by a section titled “How to Build Church Community without the Gospel” (20). This progression was a bit shocking at first, which I’m sure was their plan, but they point out that most of the tools we use to build community in our churches center on something other than the gospel. These include things such as shared life experience, shared identity, shared cause, shared needs, or shared social positions. They note that building relationships with those to whom we are naturally drawn is not wrong. “But,” in their words, “if this is the sum total of what we call ‘church community,’ I’m afraid we’ve built something that would exist even if God didn’t” (21).
The authors assure readers that they are not urging them to aim for some unrealistic community where the only thing they have in common with one another is Christ, but they do want their readers to adjust their aspirations and to try to cultivate relationships that do exist only because of the gospel. Doing so results in a community of both breadth and depth, reaching out to include peoples as contrary as Jew and Gentile and creating a bond that Scripture likens to a family or household (e.g., Eph. 2).
The second part, “Fostering Community,” provides practical steps to developing the supernatural community argued for in part one. These steps include things like preaching, praying, and building spiritually-intentional relationships. The authors place a strong emphasis on sermon application that is corporate and collaborative, as well as on encouraging members to have conversations related to the sermon with other church members and giving members suggestions on how they can pray for the church (99). The authors state, “Prayer is an ordinary means to accomplish supernatural ends,” and since we are “ordinary people seeking to cultivate supernatural community,” we must not neglect to pray (104). They point out that corporate prayer, which the New Testament speaks of often, regrettably takes a backseat to the music and sermon in many of our churches today (106).
The authors also remind their readers that the New Testament describes relationships between Christians who are spiritually focused. Christians in the New Testament confront, encourage, and discipline one another. They say, “In the church, we want to see relationships where it is normal to talk about spiritual things. Not where conversation is never about football or kids or politics—but where a conversation with no spiritual grounding would be unusual” (119).
Unfortunately though, as one cultivates this type of community, sin and discontentment will inevitably try to tear it apart. The authors address that concern in part three, “Protecting Community.” The authors give wise counsel on dealing with discontentment in the church. While church leaders do play a major role in protecting the unity of the church, they note that church members also carry much of this responsibility. Likewise, members should help guard one another from sin (169). This prospect is possible only if the spiritually-intentional relationships mentioned in part two exist. The authors urge their readers to remind their congregations, “The more amazed we are at our salvation, the more we will foster a culture of honest, grace-filled conversation about sin” (182).
Finally, part four of The Compelling Community is titled “Community at Work.” In this section, the authors focus their attention on the church’s responsibility to engage in evangelism and missions. They point out that evangelism is both personal and corporate. Every Christian must work to make evangelism a regular part of their daily lives, not just something for weekly church gatherings or special events. At the same time, the local church itself is a confirmation of the gospel message, and one should not evangelize apart from it. The authors illustrate by saying, “Doing evangelism on my own is like digging a pit using a toy shovel, then leaning on a backhoe to rest” (188). They go on to point out that the weekly gathering of the local church is not evangelism, but it is the power of evangelism.
Analysis
Overall, the authors effectively argue for a gospel-based community. They ground their approach in what they see modeled in the Scriptures. Throughout the book, they do not base their approach to the ministry for which they advocate simply on their personal preferences but rather on what they understand to be the approach that God has ordained in His Word. By doing so they aren’t just making casual suggestions on what is good to do in our churches; they are arguing based on a conviction that these are things that should characterize every Christian church.
One thing that ministry books tend to do at times is to describe what would be ideal in our churches without practical steps on how to get there. The Compelling Community may feel that way at times, but soon I realized that it was my lack of faith. The authors’ emphasis on preaching, prayer, and cultivating spiritually-intentional relationships was excellent, but I found myself wanting them to be more specific on how to reach the ideals they describe throughout the book. This criticism is unfair, however; giving specific instructions is not a realistic expectation since every church has slightly different issues that they are facing. Additionally, the book helped me realize that I need to strengthen my faith in God’s ordinary means of grace.
Conclusion
This book is intended for pastors and church leaders, and I highly recommend it to anyone serving in these positions. I also think it would be helpful to lay members who desire to take an active part in the ministry at their local church. The authors thoroughly discuss biblical church membership as a means to building a gospel-based community. Therefore, anyone would benefit from reading The Compelling Community. It’s always good to be reminded of God’s design for the local church, and this book offers an exhortation for each pastor and member to do their parts in carrying out this design.
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