Community as Family (ft. Bethany Allen) | Practicing the Way Vision Series E8

John Mark Comer Teachings

Practicing the Way

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

What does it really mean for a church to be a family? Bethany Allen unpacks a powerful vision of community not as an optional add-on to the Christian life, but as the very environment where transformation takes place. Bethany explores why community is both beautiful and broken, and how Jesus invites us to move through disappointment, unmet expectations, and past pain into a healing family of faith.

Key Scripture Passages: Genesis 1v26–27; Genesis 3v6–13; Genesis 12v1–3; Luke 8v19–21; Galatians 3v26–29

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the John Mark Como Teachings podcast. My name is Inga Dawson and I'm your host. Each week we feature teachings by John Mark or other voices in the formation space and it's great to have you with us. This week we're continuing our conversation about the role of community and the process of transformation with a teaching by Bethany Allen, elder and pastor of spiritual formation and leadership development at Bridgetown Church.
0:29.4	Today, Bethany gives a powerful teaching on what it means for community to be family and how to lean into community, miss conflict on met expectations and disappointment.
0:40.6	Here's Bethany.
0:44.2	Well, if you are new to Bridgetown, welcome.
0:48.7	Like Gerald said, my name's Bethany, and I am one of the pastors here.
0:52.8	And if you didn't know, we are currently in our vision series,
0:57.5	which is the time of year that we kind of set aside to talk about where we're headed as a community
1:03.2	over the next few months and into next year. And so we've been talking about practicing the way of Jesus
1:10.2	over the past few months
1:12.8	and talking about what it means to read the scriptures and actually live them out,
1:18.2	to put them into practice.
1:20.4	And it's been really fun.
1:21.8	I think it's been really helpful and fun.
1:24.1	Last week, John Mark talked to us about living out these practices together, kind of
1:30.5	introducing this idea of community and why it's important and helpful for us as we practice
1:36.7	the way of Jesus. And tonight, I plan to continue that conversation, which I'm really excited
1:43.0	about. So are you? We're going to do a bit of something
1:50.1	I call the Bible drill. No, just kidding. Y'all were like stoked. Some of y'all were like, I know what that is.
1:56.0	Yeah, I know, me too. If you grew up in the church, you kind of know. But we're actually going to jump
1:59.5	through a few texts tonight.
2:01.6	So you are going to have to be savvy with your Bible or your iPhone, which I think you can handle.
2:05.6	So turn with me to Genesis chapter 1.
	...

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