Doh! I forgot something! With all that talk about communities with holes at the centre, let me acknowledge that donut communities are not all bad. In fact Christians can and should work alongside healthy community groups to advance social justice, mercy ministries and other such work within their communities. Tim Keller has been a great advocate of this at New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Keller is a great theologian/practitioner hence he is able to differentiate well between the root of the gospel and the fruit of the gospel. The root of the gospel is the proclamation that Jesus is King, and is, in his life, death and resurrection, God’s plan of salvation for all who believe. The fruit of the gospel is a life lived in response to this, and one that anticipates the coming eschaton of God. In as far as others live with the shadow of this eschaton at the backs of their minds – albeit in fractured, and perhaps even godless form – we can work alongside them in community. Our hope and aim, however, is that they will come to see that true fulfilment of their community desires cannot be achieved without the intervention of God and the judgement/salvation appearance of Jesus his King.
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