Perry Noble, Community and the Bible

Perry Noble made some waves recently when he said this:

In the post I did several days ago entitled “Ten Convictions I Have About The Church” I said…

Community is more important than reading the Bible. (The early church didn’t have the Bible for the first 300 years of Christianity…but they did have one another.) 

Based on the reaction I saw what some people heard me say was, “the Bible isn’t important.”  So, let’s talk about it 🙂

I am a Bible guy!
I love God’s Word!

OK, I get it, he is a Bible guy. But he insists on community.

However, even though I love God’s Word and have a passion to teach it in a way that makes it as real and as understandable as possible, I still say that community is more important than reading the Bible in a person’s life – especially if they are a new believer.

He’s right here:

The early church did not have the Bible for the first 300 years. Sure, they had scrolls in places where they could go and hear it read out loud…but also remember that much of the ancient world could not read. It wasn’t like the early church all got out of bed in the morning, made some coffee and opened their study Bible for a quiet time.

And here:

But I still stand behind community being the most important aspect in the life of someone who wants to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus.

Here’s the problem I see here: the community is a community (church) formed by Scripture and Scripture forming that community to be the kind of community that shapes the individual. A toxic community led by toxic leaders forms too, but it forms in un-Christlike ways. A gospel-shaped leader and community forms in a gospel way.