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"Pity the poor church leadersin churches both large and smallwho will someday give account for flocks that are so amorphous that no one really knows who's inside the church. Pity the poor church attenders who never commit to obey a particular set of church leaders and instead attempt responsibility as their own shepherdsa responsibility they were never intended to fulfill....

"It turns out something everyone is talking aboutauthentic communityis bound up in something people rarely ever talk about: church membership." (54) The Compelling Community: Where God's Power Makes a Church Attractive (Crossway, 2015)...

"I am quite certain that your church is not the best place for everyone. Some may find it too big; some too small. Some may find your leadership too autocratic; some too passive. Some may find your spiritual environment exhausting; some may find it bland. Use every departure as an opportunity to reexamine your ministry, but never assume that every departure is a mark of fa...

"How you run your schedule on Sundays says much about what you expect of your people. What if they're ushered from the parking lot to the nursery and right into your theater-like seating areathen gently rushed out afterward to make space for the next service? It says that church is primarily about the experience of what happens during the service rather than the relationsh...

"Nothing safeguards the gospel quite like the supernatural community of faith that gospel preaching produces. Lose what is supernatural about that community and, I fear in a generation or so, you lose the gospel." (41) The Compelling Community: Where God's Power Makes a Church Attractive (Crossway, 2015)...

Hey BBC Teens, Parents, and Sponsors!God is giving us a great year so far! On Sundays we are studying the book of Hebrews and seeing Christ as the better High Priest, the better King, the Keeper of a better covenant, and the better Savior! On Wednesdays, we are learning about our faith and how to share it by watching and discussing Gospel Journey Maui. God has used it to...

"Our world's history is a long story of tribal conflict where no one is closer than those who are family. That is, with one critical exception of course: the local church. When two people share Christeven if everything else is differentthey are closer than even blood ties could ever bring them. They are the family of God." (26) The Compelling Community: Where God's Power ...

"When Christians unite around something other than the gospel, they create community that would likely exist even if God didn't. As a modern-day tower of Babel, that community glorifies their strength instead of God's." (23) The Compelling Community: Where God's Power Makes a Church Attractive (Crossway, 2015)...

"What [often] occurs is a demographic phenomenon and not necessarily a gospel phenomenon. Single moms gravitate to each other regardless of whether or not the gospel is true. This community is wonderful and helpfulbut its existence says nothing about the power of the gospel." (2021) The Compelling Community: Where God's Power Makes a Church Attractive (Crossway, 2015)...

"Scripture teaches that the community that matters is community built by God. We may cultivate it, feed it, protect it, and use it. But we dare not pretend to create it." (14) The Compelling Community: Where God's Power Makes a Church Attractive (Crossway, 2015)...