Engaging in authentic relationships means being genuine. It means accurately representing who we are as we interact with others. It means being honest about our joys, struggles, and challenges. Authentic relationships, one of the essential cornerstones of discipleship and of the church, are surprisingly hard to come by. Many would say they’re especially hard to come by in the church.
How can you help your people develop relationships that are authentic and genuine? Healthy and outward-focused? How can you help your people live in community together while focused on something greater than themselves? Hugh Halter and Matt Smay have provided a blueprint for this in the Tangible Kingdom Primer. They lay out a specific series of conversations and actions that groups groups of people can engage in to learn to live more like the incarnational community of Jesus that we are called to be.
I interviewed Pastor Randy Lovejoy about how he used the Tangible Kingdom Primer to help his church build authentic relationships. You’re welcome to watch the three-minute video on YouTube— it may spur some ideas of ways you can help people in your church live incarnationally together as a community.
