A Transforming Community?
I recently read and appreciated Mark Lauterbach's book "The Transforming Community". I only really picked it up because it was in the "3 for £10" sale at the bookshop a while back.
It's actually a book on church discipline, which sounds heavy, but is more about how church should function as a community:
'Church discipline is not something we "do" to someone in sin...We should always be watching over each other, encouraging each other daily against the possibility of a hardened heart, stimulating each other towards love and good works'...We must be realistic about the mess and hopeful because of Christ' (p20).
Seems to me that however we structure or style this thing called church and express it in our culture, the community of meaningful, honest "watching over" one another needs to be central. Sweeping things under the carpet is not a great policy (as a friend of mine would say - you end up with lumps!)
I was glad I opted for this book!