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This review ofMcKnight’s A Fellowship of Differents: Showing the World God’s Design for Life Together by Scot McKnight originally appeared as part of CBWC’s Theology for the Ordinary initiative. Learn more here.
As we engaged in the theme of “one anothers” as a church, a few of us read together Scot McKnight’s A Fellowship of Differents: Showing the World God’s Design for Life Together. This has been an excellent guide to living out the “one anothers” as a church. McKnight invites us to the life of the early church – a church of impossibly diverse people, religious backgrounds and cultures that struggled and thrived together as followers of Christ.
Reading the book together was very rich and rewarding. The principles of the book – everything from honouring and diversity of your congregation, to living in the power of the Holy Spirit, to being hospitable and generous – are clearly and deeply explained.
As you read the book, you will find the possibilities of this Christ-following, community life as inviting. Yet as you warm to every idea and principle, you’ll come to the sinking realization that all of this also feels impossible – after all it involves life with other people, people who are very different and distinct from ourselves. But that is where the book draws us back to essential trust in Christ. There is a tension between the simplicity and impossibility of being the church together – but this life is possible in the power of the Holy Spirit and the shared grace of Jesus Christ.
The highlight of the book for me was a chapter in the section on Flourishing. It was the best explanation of suffering in the Christian life and suffering in the life of the community that I’ve ever read. That section alone is worth the price of admission. There’s also exceptional teaching on vocation for all people (not just ministry people), living life in the Holy Spirit together, the newness found in genuine Christ community life, and so much more. As the book’s context is the church Jesus calls us to be together, I highly recommend you do not read this on your own – find a buddy or a group.
A criticism of the book from our study group was in the examples used. The book gives everyday teaching on how to follow Christ together, but the examples of people living out these teachings aren’t everyday people! But that’s a small criticism in the scope of the teaching given.
This book pairs very well with McKnight’s A Church Called TOV. TOV focuses on many things that have gone wrong in the western church. Using the witness of the early church, the witness of Christians around the world, and well-explained theology, A Fellowship of Differents invites us to imagine and be the church Christ has made possible.
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