Here’s a few quotes from Bonhoeffer’s excellent book on Christian community “Life Together.” These are all taken from the first chapter:
“It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians.”
“It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God‘s Word and sacrament”
“The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer”
“It is easily forgotten about the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from other loneliness may be brief indeed.”
“It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.”
“Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.”
“We are bound together by faith, not by experience”
