authentic community

"The regular confession of sin, struggles, fears, and failures is common in gospel-centered community—which only makes sense, because an essential foundation for this community is the reality that all have fallen woefully short of the glory of God, and that each of us continues to battle our selfish natures daily. The only reason the community exists, in fact, is because Christ has called it into existence, not because any of us earned the right to be in community

...When community is honest and authentic, people begin to experience (and lead others to experience) freedom from wearing a mask because Jesus sets people free from the need to be hypocrites. He liberates religious overachievers controlled and dominated by a religious system they can never beat. He emancipates those shackled to their secrets by bringing light to the darkness. He tears off the masks of the seemingly perfect and allows them to walk in the open. That’s the nature of authenticity in Jesus-centered community—people constantly emerging from the shadows and finding the sufficiency of grace."