In Austin City Life, we like to say that City Groups are where the church is the church to one another and to the city. This kind of “church†is rare. Unfortunately, much of American ecclesiology has devolved into an inflexible structure that facilitates attendance—a church building. Church equals building or Sunday service. This defective ecclesiology approaches “church” as an event not as a people. Tim Chester and Steve Timmis offer a helpful corrective: “Church is not two events during the week. It is a gospel-centered community on mission.â€[1] City Groups are meant to facilitate gospel-centered community on mission. They are where we can be church to one another and the city.
Why Sunday Isn’t Enough
While Sunday gatherings of the church are important, they are an incomplete experience of what the New Testament describes as church. It is impossible to carry out Paul’s “one another†instructions to the church in the context of an hour and a half on a Sunday morning. Therefore, we need some kind of structure to facilitate loving one another, bearing one another’s burdens, encouraging one another, forgiving one another, forbearing with one another, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice. City Groups are meant to facilitate this kind of “life together.â€[2] They are flexible church structures designed to facilitate the people of God living out their intended life together. While City Groups are not a “purer†expression of church than Sunday gatherings, they are a much-neglected expression of church in North America.
Steady State Community
What then does “life together†look like? City Groups are encouraged to view church, not as two events during the week, but as a steady state of community.[3] Instead of seeing community as something that primarily happens during a meeting, we need to adjust ourselves to see all of life as community. Steady state community is a constant flow of social, gospel, and missional connections throughout the week. It’s not adding special “community building†events to your already full calendar. It’s inviting people into your existing calendar. Invite people into your life not just to your City Group meetings.
*This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book: City Groups: Gospel-centered Missional Community.
Gregory the Great would have made a great church planter, but instead, he was a kind of church planting coach. Gregory sent missionaries to Britain to “make the Angles into Angels.” His choice emissary was Augustine of Canterbury, who, with 40 monks, set up mission base at in England. Like many of his Celtic predecessors, Augustine realized the strategic value of having a mission training and sending center among his target people. Augustine’s tactical prowess was driven by a robust missiology. Gregory the Great coached him on three great principles of contextualization:
