A Fellowship of Differents: Showing the World God's Design for Life Together
In this compelling book about diversity and community, McKnight shares his personal experiences and his study of the Apostle Paul to answer this significant question: What is the church supposed to be?
Local churches matter far more than we often know because they determine what Christian life looks like for you. The church McKnight grew up in was a fellowship of sames and likes. Mostly white, same beliefs about everything, same tastes in music and worship and sermons and lifestyle.
But the church God designed, says McKnight, is meant to be a fellowship of difference and differents. A mixture of people from all across the map and spectrum: men and women, rich and poor, black and white, and everything in between.
A Fellowship of Differents explores the church as God’s world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the table to share life with one another as a new kind of family, showing the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be.
Top Highlights
“The church is God’s world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together are designed by God to be. The church is God’s show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a family.” (source)
“we all learn the Christian life from how our local church shapes us” (source)
“The church is God’s grand experiment, in which differents get connected, unlikes form a fellowship, and the formerly segregated are integrated. They are to be one — not scattered all over the city — and they are one in Christ Jesus, in the salad bowl that holds the differents together.” (source)
“Eucharist. We also need to convert our practice, learning to let our table fellowship with one another morph into remembering the Lord.” (source)
“Total spontaneity is rootlessness; total routine is over-rootedness. We must plant roots and then let God give growth where he wants.” (source)
Product Details
- Title : A Fellowship of Differents: Showing the World God's Design for Life Together
- Author: McKnight, Scot
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Publication Date: 2015
- ISBN: 9780310412144
Scot McKnight is a theologian who has focused most of his writings on the New Testament and the historical Jesus. He is currently a professor of New Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, IL. He earned a B.A. degree from Grand Rapids Baptist College (now Cornerstone University), an M.A. degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham.
McKnight is a member of the Society Biblical Literature and the Society for New Testament Studies. He has written and edited many award-winning books. He has over 25 books to his name, including Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, the volumes on Galatians and 1 Peter in the NIV Application Commentary, and A New Vision for Israel: The Teaching of Jesus in National Context.