Our daily encounters with others are the arenas in which our relationship with God becomes incarnate, and most of us need a little help in this area, according to James Bryan Smith in his book The Good and Beautiful Community: Following the Spirit, Extending Grace, Demonstrating Love. The book attempts to offer ways in which followers of Jesus can have healthy relationships and become blessings to the world around them.
As the King James Bible asserts, Christians are a “peculiar” people, or at least they should be. They should obey earthly laws but live by higher laws. They should be living lives that are so winsome that others want to have what they have. They should live in a hopeful, serving, Christ-centred, reconciling, encouraging, generous, worshipping community. To help readers work towards this, the author provides soul training exercises at the end of each chapter.
I tend to regard spiritual disciplines are something that is good for me, rather than something I find exciting. Nonetheless as I read the book I found myself resonating with and attracted to the “good and beautiful community” that the author portrays. The soul training exercises may not suit the theological inclinations of all readers, but the essential characteristics of the Christian community that the book describes are compelling.