THE BEAUTIFUL
COMMUNITY
UNITY, DIVERSITY,
AND THE CHURCH
AT ITS BEST
IRWYN L. INCE JR.
FOREWORD BY TIMOTHY KELLER
“A sense of personal beauty comes,
I believe, only in the generous, self-giving gaze,
the noticing regard of another person.”
ESTHER LIGHTCAP MEEK
FOR IRWYN L. E. INCE (1926–2009),
from whom I received a sense
of personal beauty before I knew what that was.
I never had to look for eyes to affirm my beauty and dignity
because his gaze always spoke a message of generosity,
selfless giving, and love matched only by
the actions that confirmed the message.
Contents
1 The Holy and Beautiful Habitation
Our Relational God
2 The Beauty of the Lord
Our God Is Beautiful Community
3 The Perfection of Beauty
Knowing Ourselves
4 A Crown of Beauty in the Hand of the Lord
Beautiful Community as God's Image
5 Your Beautiful Crown Has Come Down from Your
Head Ghettoization of Humanity
6 I Will Beautify My Beautiful House
Identity and Formation
7 Put On Your Beautiful Garments
Culture and Community
8 How Beautiful Are the Feet
Gospel Message—Devote to the Doctrine
9 The Beauty of Holiness
Probe the Preferences and Count the Cost
10 Our Holy and Beautiful House
Toast to the Truth
Praise for Beautiful Community
More Titles from InterVarsity Press
Timothy Keller
Nearly fifty years ago I enrolled at Gordon-Conwell Seminary. A small group of us single students, all of whom lived on campus, ate in the cafeteria three times a day and became something of an informal theological dinner club. Several of my most life-shaping friendships emerged from this group. The most significant one, of course, was my friendship with Kathy, my future wife.
But another was Elward Ellis, an African American student who went on to be a leader with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and a Presbyterian minister. One day Kathy and I were with Elward and we said something about race that he corrected gently. We responded that we were indeed ignorant in this area and would be happy to listen to him. I remember that there was a twinkle in his eye when he said, “Really? Are you really asking me to be truthful with you about the subject of race? Will you be willing to be instructed by me?”
We may have swallowed hard when we said yes because we wondered if we were going to be scolded. But that’s not what Elward did. Over the next couple of years, Elward simply paid us the compliment of speaking with candor. He laid out some basic ideas about race and race relations that we never forgot. I remember three particularly vividly.
One was that white folks did not have to be personally bigoted toward individuals of another race in order to support social, educational, judicial, and economic systems ...
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About The Beautiful Community: Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its Best
Outreach Resource of the Year The church is at its best when it pursues the biblical value of unity in diversity. Our world has been torn asunder by racial, ethnic, and ideological differences. It is seen in our politics, felt in our families, and ingrained in our theology. Sadly, the church has often reinforced these ethnic and racial divides. To cast off the ugliness of disunity and heal our fractured humanity, we must cultivate spiritual practices that help us pursue beautiful community. In The Beautiful Community, pastor and theologian Irwyn Ince boldly unpacks the reasons for our divisions while gently guiding us toward our true hope for wholeness and reconciliation. God reveals himself to us in his trinitarian life as the perfection of beauty, and essential to this beauty is his work as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The gospel imperative to pursue the beautiful community—unity in diversity across lines of difference—is rooted in reflecting the beautiful community of our triune God. This book calls us into and provides tools for that pursuit. |
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