Creating Communities of Grace

I recently found a blog written by Tim Chester via the "Route 5:9" blog of the Peacemaker ministries. God seems to be giving him some good food for thought. In one of his post he talks about creating a community of grace. He defines a community of grace as one where "[we acknowledge] that we are all sinners, we are all messed up people, all struggling, all doubting at a functional level. But grace also affirms that in Christ we all belong, all make the grade, all are welcome, all are Christians (there are no lesser Christians)... When [broken people] come together they accept one another and celebrate God’s grace towards each other. They rejoice that they are all children of God through the work of Christ. And they remind one another of the truths each of them needs to keep going and to change. It’s a community of grace, a community of hope, a community of change."

I'd encourage you to click over and read the whole post, but here are his 7 main points for what we can do to help create a community of grace in our churches:

1. Make the connections (between teaching grace and what it looks like in daily life)
2. Welcome the mess
3. Stop pretending
4. Stop performing
5. Eat and drink with broken people
6. Give time to change
7. Focus on the heart

What a great list! My own prayer is that I won't think of this as something that other people in my church or community need to do (thereby placing myself in judgment over them), but that God will show me very specific ways that I can be an agent in creating a community of grace this week.