Community Evangelism

Hey guys... here's my outline for this Friday. It parallels chapters 7 and 8 from Divine Commidity somewhat.

Main idea: the church as a community has to do more than love itself, it has to love and welcome those who are new and different. We need to get better at this

Main text: 1 Corinthians 11:17-32 (and chapters 12 and 13).

1. The problem: Paul is calling out the richer members of the church for eating before the poor at communal meals. Inherent in this action is their own distorted view of community:

a. Own needs as primary: The rich were hungry, so they ate. They never really thought about the very real needs of the poorer members. They were in a position to give, but they were taking. The parallel for us is that we come to our own table (Straightforward) and enjoy community without offering it to others (new or marginal students) who might be starving for it. We get so caught up in our own desire to hang out and have fun, others are forgotten.

b. Affirmation of social categories: The rich were simply thinking the way they thought in the world. In the real world it was normal for the rich to go to the front of the line and eat at the head of the table. These social categories create division, not unity. For us, the same type of division can happen. We are too conscious of how people dress, how they talk, what they're like. We make determinations of who is like us and who is not, and that impacts whether or not we welcome them into our community. We have to stop thinking along those lines.

c. Attitude of superiority: similar to the point B, but a little different. Here the problem is that the rich probably thought of themselves as better and more deserving than the poor. Similarly, at Straightforward we can develop an attitude of spiritual superiority. We can see people who we know from school to be "sinners" or "different" or whatever, and that can prevent us from reaching out. There has to be grace and acceptance of who people are.

2. Paul's vision: One body. Unity.

3. Paul's solution: love. Paul's treatise on love is the antidote to the disease of divions in community.

a. Love is not self-seeking: acknowledges that it's not about us. We have to come here seeking to love, seeking to extend grace. Not looking to simply get ours.

b. Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud: love doesn't keep track of social categories. Doesn't look at people as being "too cool" or too "uncool" for us.

c. Love keeps no record of wrongs: love doesn't look down on people whose lives appear less "holy" than ours.

Example: table of Jesus - with sinners.


That's about it. The primary purpose of the message is to deal with the things that prevent us from being welcoming, and call on our kids to be intentionally loving and accepting. At the end, we'll allow them to apply this by giving them the chance to be a part of welcoming groups.