Episode 88: Author Barnabas Piper on What it Means to Belong

In No Hurry with Cole Douglas Claybourn

Being in community with people is one of the strongest desires we feel as humans. As adults, finding that community can be a challenge, but the church can be a great place to look.

A new book by Barnabas Piper, "Belong," seeks to equip churches and churchgoers about how to best cultivate a sense of belonging within the context of a church family. Barnabas joins me this week to talk about his new book and the ideas inside of it. This is one of the first books in the new Love Your Church series, which is being written by a collection of Bible teachers from Acts29, a church planting network.

“We are looking for something personal, something deeply meaningful, something with which we can identify," Barnabas writes in the first chapter of the book. "And this book is an invitation to find that in the church, because God wants us to …Part of God’s perfect strategy is offering hurting, tired, worn out, needy sinners like you and me a place to belong in … A place in which to encounter the profound, transformative, healing, restoring grace of Jesus Christ.”

This is the third time Barnabas has been a guest on the show, and I always appreciate his perspective on a number of topics. If you're interested in hearing more, you can check out The Happy Rant Podcast, where Barnabas is a co-host, as well as the Happy Rant Podcast book, which he and his co-hosts wrote. In both the podcast and the book, Piper and the others touch on a wide variety of topics that fall under the purview of Christian and church culture, and they bring a good mixture of wit and humor to the table. Barnabas and I talk about that book as well and the heart behind it.

You can connect with Barnabas and learn more about his other books at barnabaspiper.com.

Thanks for listening!

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You can check out my previous conversations with Barnabas below:

• Episode 48: So You Want to Write a Book?
• Episode 18: Doubt & Unbelief with Author Barnabas Piper