The Irresistible Community: An Invitation to Life Together

by Bill Donahue

Publisher:

Baker

, 2015

Overview

We all want a place where our stories matter, our voices are heard, our uniqueness is celebrated, our failures are embraced, and our hopes are unleashed. That kind of deep, life-changing community is found in fellowship with Jesus and was modeled perfectly by him and the ragged bunch of disciples with whom he chose to spend his time. But how can we create it in our lives?

Build community the way Jesus did.

Using the relationship of Jesus to his disciples in the upper room, Bill Donahue presents a simple but compelling approach to community life. Using a table, a towel, and the truth, Jesus created an “irresistible community” where everyone found a place to belong, lived fully in the truth, and served others with joy. Donahue shows you just how to apply Jesus’ lessons to your own community—with life-changing results.

Key Features

• Links Jesus’ relationship with his disciples to modern community life
• Examines the nature of the Christian community
• Challenges Christians to redefine community

Contents

• Join the Fellowship of the Table
  • Table Manners
  • Choose a Table, Any Table
  • Table Tales
• Practice the Ministry of the Towel
  • Your Towel Has a Name on It
  • A Dirty Towel Is a Happy Towel
  • Arranging Our Towels in a Circle
  • Don’t Throw in the Towel
• Live in the Circle of Truth
  • A Hunger for Truth
  • Telling Ourselves the Truth
  • The Truth Hurts, the Truth Heals
  • Truth is Dangerous

Praise for the Print Edition

I worked with Bill for many years and got to see up close his passion and expertise for helping churches roll up their sleeves and create community. He has helped people all over the world create greater relational connectedness—and he will help you.

—John Ortberg, senior pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

We all long for community with others. Sometimes we look for it in the right places. Sometimes we’re far off base. But few of us know why we so desperately long for connection and belonging. Bill helps us see that those roots start, and find their water, in and through Jesus.

—Steve Gladen, author, Leading Small Groups with Purpose

Bill played a big role in helping our church build a thriving group ministry. In one of the training sessions he conducted with our leaders, he walked us through Jesus’s vision for community in the upper room discourse. Our leaders caught that vision, and they in turn spread a passion within our church for authentic community comprised of ‘table, towel, and truth.’ Read this, and you’ll find that same passion.

—Tony Evans, senior pastor, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship

The term ‘community’ has become more of a cliché than a way of life. After reading The Irresistible Community, I believe deeply that the small group community will recapture what Christian community really is.

—Rick Howerton, discipleship and small group specialist, LifeWay

Product Details

• Title: The Irresistible Community: An Invitation to Life Together
• Author: Bill Donahue
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2015
• Pages: 256
• Resource Type: Topical
• Topic: Christian Living

About Bill Donahue

Bill Donahue (Ph.D., University of North Texas) is founder and lead strategist for The Communitas Network, which coaches and equips catalytic leaders to build transformational teams for the purpose of mobilizing missional communities. He also serves as an adjunct teacher at a number of seminaries, training both master's and doctoral students in church leadership and small group ministry. He previously served as executive director of small group ministries for the Willow Creek Association (WCA), where he developed leadership strategies and training events for over 2500 volunteers. He has also worked as an associate pastor in Texas and Pennsylvania, and at Proctor Gamble and PNC Financial Corporation. He is the author of Leading Life-Changing Small Groups and coauthor of Building a Church of Small Groups, The 7 Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry and Walking the Small Group Tightrope (all with Russ Robinson). With Greg Bowman he is the author of Coaching Life-Changing Leaders. He has also written In the Company of Jesus and the Jesus 101 small group study series (with Keri Wyatt Kent).