The Beautiful Community

Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its Best

By: Irwyn L. Ince Jr., Timothy Keller - foreword

Narrated by: David Sadzin

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.

©2020 Irwyn L. Ince Jr. (P)2020 eChristian

Beautiful Description of Gods Beautiful Community.

I truly enjoyed listening to this audio book. I liked it so much I purchased the digital copy so that I could write notes and copy some of the details describe in the book. As a Latin/ Hispanic Chaplain, and bi-vocational minister I thought that this book offered a well described interpretation of what a biblical kingdom community is supposed to look like. I used it as the foundation for my own sermon on community that I preached at my church. I would encourage anyone who is trying to create, start or focus on creating a church/christian community that resembles the biblical definition of what a diverse kingdom community should look like to read this book. I cannot begin to describe all that I took away from reading this book and all that I am already doing to encourage our own church community to resemble the kingdom community as described in this book. Thank you to the author for these words.

A Beautiful Call to Unity

This was a beautiful call to what the church should look like. A call to be unified in our diversity and diverse in our unity. Ince sets a firm foundation in the first four chapters with a thorough, systematic, and Biblical look at who God is, who Christ is, who we are, and what community is. He goes on to sift through what has and does polarize Christians, how we are products of the culture in which we were raised, and a realistic assessment of our brokenness that separates us from true unity in our churches. He finishes strong with a call to dig deep, do the hard work of identifying cultural values and preferences in the church, and seek out the experiences with other ethnicities/cultures to build authentic communities centered in the beauty of Christ.

I strongly recommend this book to Christians and churches that desire to be beautiful, diverse communities which reflect Christ and His love.