Tuesdays are dinner and discussion nights for Austin City Life (let us know if you want to come), as we are intentionally trying to build ACL on gospel, community and mission. The second chapter in Total Church answers the question: “Why Community?” Timmis put community and mission together like this:
God is a missionary God and God’s primary missionary method is his covenant people. Humanity was made in the image o the triune God. The purpose of an image is to represent something and we represent God on earth. God made us as persons-in-community to be he vehicle through which he would reveal his glory…The attractive covenant community continues to be the means by which God fulfills his promise to Abraham. What has changed is the centre. Now it is the community itself among whom Christ promises to be present. The communtiy move out across the globe (centrifugal), all the time drawing people to its Lord through its common life (centripital).