Belong: Living in God’s Family

Interview with Chris Horton- part 1

Thank you for your time. It is such a delight to chat with you about your book, especially during this Christmas season, when we celebrate Jesus with our families!

Thank you for the opportunity! 

Q1: Could you start us off with giving us a snapshot of what your book is about?

We all have a basic human need to belong, because we are created that way.  God wants us to be part of interlinked communities that together reflect His glory.  But in practice, most people find belonging in groups defined by who they are not or whom they are against!  We see that in political life and church life, sadly.

So I wanted to recover a vision for what God’s people, the church, can be – much broader and more diverse, much more relational and experimental than most of us dare believe.  And what the church will become – more glorious than we dare imagine!

Q2: What inspired you to write about this?

I have been pondering these things for nearly 50 years and sharing some of it in various contexts.  My understanding and vision have grown but over the years people found some of this helpful, so I wanted to write Belong to help more people.  In particular I wanted to help people overcome the disappointments of being hurt in church – as we all are from time to time.  But also I really want people to see church as relational and supernatural, not just the institutions and organisations we see with human eyes.  

Q3: How do you currently do ‘church’ or ‘community’?

It looks messy but in reality we are doing church like we have done for all the 43 years we have been married: by linking with a few key relationships, building friendship and seeking to be open and vulnerable in different ways.  Even when we have been part of a large local church like All Nations we have considered the few key relationships as real church while the bigger meetings are useful for worship, teaching and encouragement.

Some of these people we link with are close and are accountability partners – Christians we know well and can be completely open with (nowadays they are some distance away so we connect online or only occasionally in person). 

Some have a different understanding of church but we pray and worship together – there are a handful where we live and we link with the local Anglican church as the only group to meet in our village.   We also connect online with a small church rooted in the Middle East because we have a heart to serve disciple-making in that region.   

But some of the people we link with are neighbours who are not-yet-Christians. We want to be open and vulnerable with them, modelling the unconditional love that Jesus showed – not in the same ways as with accountability partners but giving and receiving in friendship, being ourselves so we trust the love of God can touch their lives.  We want to be missional in our locality and build or encourage missional communities wherever possible.

Keep your eye out for part 2 of our interview with Chris next week! 

Chris and Catherine Horton served as part of the leadership of All Nations church from 2012 to 2021 and are currently part of the Movement apostolic team. With master’s degrees in law and theology, Chris brings together the worlds of business and church and is now focused on leadership training in All Nations and is chair of trustees. He is passionate about family, hill-walking and cross-cultural mission.    

To find out more about Chris’ book, click here for a free sampler. You can purchase a copy of Chris’ book on Amazon here.