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A Fellowship of Differents: Showing the World God's Design for Life Together, by Scot McKnight
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In this compelling book, Scot McKnight shares his personal experience in the church as well as his study of the Apostle Paul to answer this significant question: What is the church supposed to be?
For most of us the church is a place we go to on Sunday to hear a sermon or to participate in worship or to partake in communion or to fellowship with other Christians. Church is all contained within one or two hours on Sunday morning.
The church the Apostle Paul talks about is designed by God to be a fellowship of difference—how people differ socially—and differents—how people differ culturally. God did not design the church to be a two-hour experience on Sunday but a mixture of people from all across the map and spectrum: men and women, rich and poor, Caucasians or African Americans, and Mexican Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and Indian Americans, and a mixture of people with varying personalities and tastes. The church McKnight grew up in was a fellowship of sames and likes. There was almost no variety in his church. White folks, same beliefs about everything, same tastes in music and worship and sermons and lifestyle. Because of his experience, he writes incisively and compellingly.
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 to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is 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.
- Sales Rank: #118281 in Books
- Brand: HarperCollins Christian Pub.
- Published on: 2015-02-24
- Released on: 2015-02-24
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.74" h x .87" w x 5.75" l, .80 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 272 pages
Review
Fifty years from now, pastors, scholars, and Christians from a wide variety of denominations will look back say, “God used A Fellowship of Differents to change the church in America!” This is the most important book you may ever read outside of the Bible. The staff of Transformation Church will be reading this phenomenal book. -- Derwin L. Gray, , lead pastor of Transformation Church; author, Limitless Life
I love this book! It’s the theological mac to my social-psychological cheese. The pursuit of unity in the midst of difference is a trek across a minefield. With each step, we must contend with challenges that threaten to send us running back to the “safety” of similar others. That’s why I’m so thankful for A Fellowship of Differents. McKnight draws from Paul’s letters to give readers the robust foundation and action steps needed to keep pursuing unity at all costs. -- Christena Cleveland, , author Disunity in Christ; associate professor of reconciliation studies, Bethel University
For over twenty-five years I’ve served as a church planter and pastor of churches that wrestled with being pots of stew (or “salad bowls,” as Scot McKnight would put it). Pastors in my situation found ourselves ---sometimes unwittingly --- in conflict with the so-called “homogenous unit principle,” that highly pragmatic perspective at work in megachurches whose explosive growth had many of us drooling and sitting at the feet of CEO-pastors. Yet I craved something else: a resource to encourage and challenge us from the Scriptures, affirming our work among people of various backgrounds, different races, ethnicities, genders, and economic groups. McKnight has blended his expertise in the NT and his passion as a life-long participant in the church to address just about every topic we can imagine! I enthusiastically recommend this book! -- Rev. Dennis R. Edwards, , PhD, senior pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis
Pour yourself a cup of coffee and settle into this timely, provocative, and challenging book on what it means to be the church. McKnight’s conversational style and his perceptive insights to American Christian culture combine with his expert analysis of Scripture to illuminate God’s design for Christian fellowship. An essential read for all who long for the church to live out its calling. -- Lynn Cohick, , professor of New Testament, Wheaton College
A Fellowship of Differents echoes God’s plea for true community: for the church to become the real deal embracing all of God’s different kinds of people, to unite in a “wild revolution of equality” through Him, to bring visibility to the otherwise invisible. Most importantly, this book shows us how true unity is the only way to achieve Jesus’ heart for his bride, the church. -- Bruxy Cavey, , author of bestseller The End of Religion; teaching pastor at The Meeting House
At a moment when so many are questioning what the church is and wondering if it even matters, McKnight’s claim --- that the way we follow Jesus is shaped by our local church more than any other source --- is a bold, prophetic, and compelling idea. Reading this book gave me a new vision for what my church is and what it could be. It was nothing short of a love affair with Jesus’ bride all over again. -- John Mark Comer, , Pastor of Teaching and Vision, Bridgetown: A Jesus Church
A Fellowship of Differents is an impressive achievement: it puts the church in conversation with today’s most difficult differences and differents --- and the church comes out making sense. Scot McKnight’s work is precisely in step with Jesus’ famous words: “I will build my church.” We need this book because all of us different people in the modern church are the ones Jesus has trusted with the keys to the kingdom! -- Anglican Bishop Todd Hunter, , author, Giving Church Another Chance
Ever wonder what Paul would say to the Church today? This is it. Scot McKnight has captured the mind and heart of our beloved apostle, who spent his whole life pursuing one dream, preaching one gospel, sacrificing everything for one beautiful vision: that all people would believe in the Lord because the church --- this strange collection of humanity united by the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit for one purpose --- is the very body of Christ. -- Rodney Reeves, , professor of biblical studies, Southwest Baptist University
One of my life values is that uniqueness is better than conformity, firmly believing (though I realize this is strong) that conformity only leads to death. My work with church leaders shows me that healthy thriving churches are not only places of diversity, but they love that about themselves. A Fellowship of Differents will feel like a commendation to churches who already live in this tension, and like a loving and prophetic intervention for those who wrongly worship the god of sameness. -- Mark Oestreicher, , partner, The Youth Cartel; Author, Hopecasting
Scot McKnight applies a professor’s mind with a pastor’s heart to one of the greatest enemies of God’s plan for his church: disunity. Instead of being a “salad bowl” fellowship of difference and differents, we’ve segregated ourselves into homogeneous groups so remote that we are virtually invisible to each another. The author doesn’t stop by describing this inconvenient truth, but identifies six themes of the Christian life that, when implemented in the church by God’s grace, will help us to love one another and flourish as one people of God. No Christ-follower who cares about the beauty of Christ’s bride, the church, should miss this masterful guide to creating a fellowship of differents! -- Dr. E Andrew McQuitty, , senior pastor of Irving Bible Church, author of Notes from the Valley
The local church certainly has its failings and therefore, its critics. Most critics are just angry and few are helpful. Scot McKnight loves the local church and because he loves the local church, his words of criticism don’t wound as much as they remind us – of who we once were, of who we’re called to be, and who we can yet become. Like a parent showing a child the child’s baby picture, Scot McKnight, in his book, A Fellowship of Differents, calls us back to the original dreams of fellowship and transformational love Jesus first intended for us – and still intends for us now. -- Mike Glenn, , Senior Pastor, Brentwood Baptist Church, Brentwood, TN
In the context of a rapidly changing world, our ecclesiology must go deeper. In a winsome manner, Scot McKnight brings the teachings of the apostle Paul to life so that we may rediscover what the church is supposed to be. A Fellowship of Differents provides a hopeful and an applicable ecclesiology for the twenty-first century that provides insight into the burden and joy of being the church. -- Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, , Milton B. Engebretson Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism; author of The Next Evangelicalism
About the Author
Scot McKnight (PhD, Nottingham) is the Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. He is the author of more than fifty books, including the award-winning The Jesus Creed as well as The King Jesus Gospel, A Fellowship of Differents, One.Life, The Blue Parakeet, and Kingdom Conspiracy.
Most helpful customer reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
A rich vision of the diverse community that the church should be
By Englewood Review of Books
A fitting sequel to the local ecclesiology that he introduced in his recent book Kingdom Conspiracy, McKnight begins with the bold proclamation that:
Everything I learned about the Christian life I learned from my church. I will make this a bigger principle: a local church determines what the Christian life looks like for the people in that church. Now I’ll make it even bigger still: we all learn the Christian life from how our local churches shape us. (15)
From these proclamations, McKnight hones in on the central two questions that he wants to explore here:
1) What is the church supposed to be?
2) If the church is what it is supposed to be, what does the Christian life look like?
McKnight emphasizes that diversity is at the heart of what God intends the church to be, and he is clear that he is not talking merely about racial diversity, but rather diversity across a wide range of factors. He asks the questions:
We should see different genders, socioeconomic groups, races, cultures, music styles, artistic styles, moral histories, forms of communication, ages involved, marital status, at church. Do we?
What Scot McKnight offers in A Fellowship of Differents is a rich vision of the diverse community that the church should be, and why we should be so. At points throughout the book, I did wish for more reflection on how largely homogeneous church communities, could start to embrace this biblical vision of diversity, and be transformed by it. Regardless, this is one of the most accessible and important books in print on our calling as the church.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Some Good Content, But a Bit of a Mixed Salad
By Dwight Gingrich
"This idea, that Paul’s mission was a mixed assembly of differents, lies at the core of my beliefs about how the whole Bible works… Are we willing to embrace the diversity of the church as *the very thing God most wants*? (pp. 89, 91, italics in original)
The need for the the Church to become more unified is, thankfully, receiving some long-overdue attention. This book is NT scholar Scot McKnight’s contribution to the topic.
McKnight is widely-known in at least three ways: As a blogger, as an author of biblical commentaries, and as an author of popular-level books on the Christian life, the atonement, and Bible interpretation. This book falls into the third category: books written for the church rather than the academy. Prior to this book, I had only read McKnight via his other two categories: his blog and his commentaries.
My impression of McKnight prior to this book was mixed, and so is my impression of this book. (I have enjoyed McKnights’s emphasis on the kingdom of God, some of his challenges to Calvinist thinking, and his emphasis on the social and ethical aspects of Christian transformation. I am less than happy with things like his adoption of gender role egalitarianism or his promotion of evolutionary creationism.)
So, what do I think about A Fellowship of Differents?
SOME THINGS I LIKE:
* The emphasis that church life shapes our understanding of the the Christian life. Examples: Highly emotional revival meetings that call people to pray the Sinner’s Prayer might teach us to think of salvation as only a one-time event. Congregations where everyone looks the same (class, ethnicity) might lead us to overlook what the NT says about the radical social composition of Jesus’ Church. What I experience in church shapes what I think Christianity is all about.
* The challenge to consider who is invisible both in the Church and in our congregations. McKnight mentions the Hampton Ministers’ Conference, “the longest running pastors’ conference in the USA, attended by seven thousand” (p. 18). I’d never heard of it. Neither had McKnight until recently. Why? Certainly, in part (there are also theological reasons), because McKnight and I are white while this 101-year-old conference focuses on the needs of the African-American church. Closer to home: Who might be invisible in my own congregation? Widows and widowers? Children? Races? Women? The poor? Urban? Suburban? Rural? (Win!) Those with higher education? Those with less? Those battling sexual temptation or confusion? Introverts? The abused? The depressed?
* The challenge to get our of our just-like-me comfort zones. McKnight quotes a confession from Christena Cleveland from her recent book Disunity in Christ (which is also on my wish list): “I chose to build community with people with whom I could pretty much agree on everything” (p. 32). Ouch. Or this: “Genuine friendships, which are two-way, are always transformative. One reason, then, we don’t love those unlike us in the church is because we don’t want their presence rubbing off on us” (p. 59).
* Helpful insights on the Lord’s Supper. I enjoyed the extended quotation of Justin Martyr’s record of a second-century Christian gathering. First came the Word, then came the Table, and then came Offerings. Woven through the whole account are clauses displaying Christian unity: “We always keep together… All who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place… We all rise together and pray… There is a distribution to each… and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons… we all hold our common assembly” (pp. 102-103). “The Eucharist—as an action, as symbols, as an event—gospels to all those who observe and to all those who participate” (p. 101). The gospel binds us together, and the Supper is to be eaten together (1 Cor. 11:33).
* Some good exegesis and pastoral advice about same-sex attraction. McKnight includes a whole chapter on sexual matters, much of it devoted to the sub-topic of same-sex matters. I didn’t think the chapter was perfect, but it does reflect a clear stance both that same-sex acts are sinful and that the Church must grow in loving and supporting repentant same-sex Christians. I am glad to see McKnight speak clearly on this topic.
* A powerful story from Greg Boyd about transformation by grace. The words “there is now no condemnation for them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1) were the key that led to Boyd’s gradual freedom from pornography (pp. 152-53).
* A reminder that “the best way to be political is to be the church” (p. 187). Both “kingdom” and “church” were political terms, after all.
* Some good quoteables. Such as: “Joy… is a church-shaped disposition. Only folks in the church can experience what Paul means by joy” (p. 234).
SOME THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:
* Careless or inconsistent editing. Examples: The first line on the back cover is an endorsement that begins, “This is [sic] most important book…” (Missing “the.”) On pages 40 and 72 Bible references are unhelpfully buried in endnotes, though often included elsewhere in the main text. On page 52 McKnight says, “Take Paul at his word. Love is the ‘only thing that counts.'” Paul actually said “faith working through love” is the only thing that counts (Gal. 5:6). On page 70 we read, “Some elements of our covenant love commitment of presence include spending our evenings together…” The wording suggests a list, which never comes. On page 98 a story begins in present tense but switches mid-sentence to past tense. On page 141 we are promised some italicized words in a Bible quote, but none are included. More examples of awkward syntax are found on pages 227 and 228.
* Exaggeration. Examples: “God has designed the church—and this is the heart of Paul’s mission—to be a fellowship of difference and difference” (p. 16). Was church diversity really the very heart of Paul’s mission? Is “the diversity of the church” really “the very thing God most wants” (see above)? Might we be missing a deeper goal that makes diversity meaningful and necessary? And is inclusion of differents really “the church’s biggest challenge” (p. 25)? Don’t get me wrong, I am fully on board that church diversity is a crucial implication of the core gospel message. But these kinds of overstatements put me on the defensive, making me weigh more carefully everything else the author writes.
* A bit of self-promotion. McKnight describes a book written by a friend, called The Gospel of Yes. “It’s the best title of a book I’ve ever seen (except for The Blue Parakeet).” Which happens to be McKnight’s book.
* Casual tone. I’m probably just the wrong reader for this book (on page 38 McKnight says “maybe you’ve not read Paul’s story enough to know the details”), but I confess some of these kind of try-to-make-you-laugh comments fall flat with me. Another example: On page 148 McKnight introduces the “circumcision party,” “which ought to be self-explanatory (#ouch).” After describing the circumcision party, he includes this “(#intimidating).” McKnight seemed concerned not to be too formal, so sometimes this book feels like a series of extended blog posts.
* Uninformative chapter titles. A chapter called “Teacher with the Big Fancy Hat” turns out to be about suffering. Another called “On a Walk with Kris” turns out to be about joy. This might make you curious, but doesn’t help you trace the book’s big idea, nor review content later.
* Unclear statements about God’s love. On page 34 McKnight quotes Romans 8:31 (“If God is for us, who can be against us?”). In context, Paul writes this to those who have been justified by faith and are walking in the Spirit. But McKnight’s application sounds more general: “God loves everyone.” On the following page he elaborates (in center-justified, bold text that I can't reproduce here) with words that sound more like Joel Osteen than Paul the apostle:
No matter what you have done,
not because you go to church,
not because you read your Bible,
not because folks think you are spiritual,
and
no matter what sins you have committed,
no matter how vicious or mean or vile they were,
no matter how calloused your heart and soul have become,
God loves you.
Not because you are good,
not because you do good things,
not because you are famous or have served others,
but because you are you.
To you, God has said Yes,
God is saying Yes,
and God will eternally say Yes.
God is for the You that is You.
* Missing balance about church boundaries. McKnight says he originally planned to include a chapter on obedience (source: interview on Ben Witherington's blog). I think this book would be much more balanced if it included such a chapter, along with a discussion of the role of church discipline when the diverse people who join our churches don’t faithfully follow the words and way of Jesus. I felt there were too many unqualified statements like this: “As long as one was on the journey toward sexual redemption, Paul was encouraging. At the house churches they didn’t put up a sign that said ‘For the Morally Kosher Only'” (p. 129). Or this: “What Jesus and the apostles taught was that you were welcomed because the church welcomed all to the table” (p. 17). In contrast, buried in a footnote are these words about the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper) from Justin Martyr: “No one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined” (p. 252). If only McKnight had included and discussed such things in his main text! To be fair, McKnight clarifies that love does not mean “toleration” (p. 130); it means helping another experience positive change. But I didn’t notice that McKnight anywhere said what to do if a person in the church resists or seems indifferent to any such growth in holiness.
* Lack of discussion of the universal church. At one point McKnight writes, “I hope you agree with me that the hope for the world is the local church, and that the heart of God’s plan is found in creating a whole new society in a local church” (p. 188). Interestingly, Ben Witherington, a NT scholar and friend of McKnight, pushed back on this point (blog interview): “At one point in the book, you say that the local church is the hope of the world. For a minute I thought that was a slip up, and you meant to say Christ is. Talk to us a bit about the interface between Christ and his body, between Christology and your vision of ecclesiology. For my part I would prefer to say that the local church at its best is simply the local expression of ‘the one true church apostolic and universal’. In other words I would not want to talk about church with a little c without talking about church with a big C, though I would agree that, like politics, in one sense all churches are local.” In subsequent online conversation with Witherington, he agreed with me that part of the problem is our tendency to read the “membership” and “body of Christ” language in the NT as referring to the local church, when really such language strongly implies the universal church. There is only one Head of the Church, right? And a head can only have one body?
* Strong (and poorly defended) assertions about gender equality. McKnight seems to feel that any distinction in gender roles is a denial of gender equality in Christ—a position that, barring hermeneutical gymnastics, leaves Paul contradicting himself. The following quote even suggests that God’s creation order falls short of his plan for us in Christ (this despite the fact that Paul repeatedly cites creation as the basis for his statements about gender roles!): “In creation God ‘gendered’ us into male and female, but in the new creation, God makes us one” (p. 90). You’d be hard pressed to find those two ideas connected with a “but” in the Bible, except perhaps by implication in Christ’s discussion of life after death. “Sexual differences” have “been transcended,” writes McKnight (p. 91). But I’m left without help to know how to such statements to what McKnight writes later: “One in Christ does not mean Paul ceases being male, nor does Junia cease being a female” (95). True, identity, gender or otherwise, is not eradicated in Christ. But, for McKnight, unlike Paul, identity apparently has nothing to do with roles. As has often been pointed out, such a re-reading of Paul also means that one has little hermeneutical basis for denying that Paul’s words affirm homosexual role relationships when he says that “there is no male and female” in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28). Enough on this for now.
* Salad-bowl feel. Mcknight rightly wants us to adopt a vision of the church as a salad bowl full of diversity. Unfortunately his book felt like a bit of a salad bowl to me, as if he was pulling together a handful of semi-related topics for publication. (Is this true of McKnights earlier books? Or is this the symptom of a popular author who feels pressured to keep the books coming?) The title of the book suggests the book is about diversity and unity in the church. But the back cover suggests other themes: “McKnight shares his personal experience of church and offers to the church a thorough study of what the Apostle Paul writes about the Christian life… Ultimately, McKnight raises two significant questions: What is the church supposed to be? and If the church is what it is supposed to be, what does the Christian life look like?” Wow. with those questions, you can include about anything you want. I think this book would be more compelling if it focused more narrowly on unity and diversity in the church. For example: More hands-on stories of churches wrestling with diversity would help. I think the survey of Paul’s writings could have been more focused on this topic, as well. And sometimes when wide-ranging topics were included (love, grace, suffering, joy–all main themes of either chapters or whole parts of the book), a stronger and clearer connection should have been made with the theme of church diversity. On page 43, I scribbled in the margin, “What does this powerful story have to do with the book’s thesis?” The book could also be improved by a concluding chapter that ties the disparate themes together.
THIS BOOK HAS GOOD SECTIONS, BUT IS NOT GREAT. I GIVE IT 3 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A Deep Look at Pauline Theology, Accessible to All Christians
By Ryan Scott
Scot McKnight is a pretty popular author, although I've not read any of his other books. I've read blog posts and articles from time to time and I respect his suggestions greatly when it comes to biblical commentaries. He's a top-notch scholar and I was excited to read his new book, A Fellowship of Differents, a challenging look at how God calls Christians to live and worship together.
The book follows largely the life and teachings of Paul in an attempt to re-orient the often confused nature and construction of modern congregations. At the same time, McKnight is gracious and uplifting in addressing these congregations and the value of a local worshiping body in the formation and continuation of the Christian faith.
The book is difficult in places, a real challenge to what we've come to see as normal comfort in the American Church. In other places it reinfuses a love of those people who nurtured us in faith, even if we may now differ in perspective quite greatly. But overall, McKnight addresses the positive, essential attributes of what it means to live together in Christ. Chief among those is diversity, not just racially or culturally, but also theologically and politically and in every way imaginable. For him (and for Paul), the core of the gospel is making room for all people to live together in love.
It's a loft goal and as the book is fleshed out, the many ways in which that can be difficult are addressed. In the Afterward, McKnight mentions the book was once much longer than its current 250 or so pages. That becomes pretty clear as he seems to be writing the bare minimum of his thoughts in some sections. He is careful to step forward and address some topics in detail. He addresses the unique issues of homosexuality in the modern Church with grace and calm. His treatment of scripture is both responsible and full of integrity. He addresses without antagonism, those areas where he disagrees with others on interpretation and meaning, but one of my great regrets in reading the book is that he chooses not to engage those Christians who agree with him on scripture, but disagree on the ultimate course of gay Christians (marriage or celibacy).
Ultimately, though, this is one small chapter in a much larger work, which deftly maneuvers over many difficult and rocky topics without sounding judgmental or pushy. This is largely because he maintains the focus on unity, love, and mutual submission that was so important to Paul and so essential for faithful Christ-like living. This is not a book about hot topics or religious controversies, although a number of them are mentioned; it is a book about how the Church can remain unified and healthy in the midst of a world with disagreements and difficulties. For that, it is an important read.
Maybe I read it too fast - I suspect A Fellowship of Differents is best digested a chapter at a time - but there were obviously some places that meant less to me than others. It wasn't a book where I was dying to get to the next page. I thought the first half was better than the second, but largely, I think, because the first half was more general and the second more specific (as is necessary for the form it takes). Overall, it is an interesting perspective and a unique way of presenting some deep intricacies of Pauline theology in ways that are entirely accessible to the average Christian.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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