the weblog of Alan Knox

Steve Timmis interview about gospel word and gospel community

Posted by on May 10, 2010 in blog links, books, community, service | 3 comments

A friend on facebook sent me a link to this interview with Steve Timmis, one of the authors of Total Church, a book that I’ve recommended before. Here is part of the interview:

“We take seriously the Gospel word — we are confessional evangelicals. We have a number of values and a statement of faith that reflects that,” said Timmis, who also serves as Western Europe Director for the Acts 29 church planting network. “We believe the Gospel word is a word to be spoken: we try and argue that very clearly in church (life). So, you can’t talk about living a life without speaking the Word. If you do, then whatever you are doing, you are not evangelizing; you are selling the Gospel short. So, the Gospel word is very important to us and it is a word that focuses upon what God has done in Christ in redeeming a people for Himself who will enjoy Him for eternity.

“We also take seriously Gospel community in a way that, traditionally, confessional evangelicals haven’t. Gospel community is a group of people who are being rescued by King Jesus and who live as His subjects together to demonstrate to the world what a great King He is. So, Gospel community is a demonstrating community: it demonstrates the nature of the Kingdom of God, the nature of Jesus’s rule.”

This parallel emphasis on the gospel proclaimed and the gospel lived out in community is one of the reasons that I appreciated Total Church and that I recommend it often.

By the way, later in the interview Timmis discusses their use of the term “church,” which he defines as “gospel community.” They use the term “church” to describe both a larger gathering and smaller gatherings, which others would call “small groups” or “Bible studies” or “Sunday School classes” but not “church.”

3 Comments

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  1. 5-10-2010

    I just got my copy of Total Church, it is in the on deck circle of books.

  2. 5-10-2010

    Arthur,

    I’m looking forward to your review. 🙂

    -Alan

  3. 5-10-2010

    Alan,

    So good! So very good!

    Words of this kind were anathema when I was a young pastor.