Instead of the King of all consorting with rulers and dignitaries, He preferred to spend his time with those that nobody else wanted to be with β let alone touch.
This Paper is the product of sharing experiences, thoughts, feelings and prayers as a group from a very diverse range of nationalities, backgrounds and ministries. You will find stories and examples from our work and relationships throughout this Paper. We are trying to learn continually β very often directly from those we serve.
We offer our shared understandings to you as a resource and invite you to add your own consideration and experience to this dialogue, whether as an individual or a church group. In doing so, we realise that we will also need to follow Jesus in bearing the cost of discipleship and accepting the risks of association.
In Chapter 6, we consider how churches can best be equipped as they try to put association into practice and how this process may involve some changes to our understanding of church. Recognising that this work is for the Whole Church and that the work will be better done together. There are many understandings, forms and degrees of risk. We are aware that in one sense or another, everyone is at risk, whether in the senses of physical danger, emotional problems and social exclusion or in the more serious sense of not being saved from the consequences of sin.
The children of wealthy parents whose main interest is that their children get into the best schools, get the best jobs and so on, are certainly at risk of not understanding their need for the gospel, for example. We acknowledge that the affluent and comfortable do face risks. We also recognise gladly the compassionate efforts of the church to minister holistically to each and any of those people and to love them as God does.
