Podcast Summary: Deeper Fellowship Church Podcast

Episode: The Model of the Future

Date: April 19, 2026
Host/Speaker: Pastor William McDowell

Overview

In this profound, teaching-focused episode, Pastor William McDowell exhorts the congregation to reimagine the true nature and purpose of the church. Drawing from John 13:34–35, he passionately critiques the prevalent Western individualistic approach to faith, arguing for a paradigm shift: The church is not a spiritual utility for personal growth but the present embodiment of God’s future kingdom. Through theological insights, biblical exposition, and memorable metaphors, Pastor McDowell challenges listeners to see themselves as part of a transformative, countercultural community—one that exists to show the world what it looks like when God reigns.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Tone: From Individualism to Community

• Critical Text: John 13:34–35—Jesus’ “new commandment” to love one another as proof of discipleship (00:40)
• The Western church often treats spiritual formation as an individual pursuit, primarily for personal benefit.
• True formation in the image of Christ cannot happen in isolation: “Formation cannot be completed alone and was never intended to be pursued apart from community.” (10:32)

2. Spiritual Formation: Definitions and Deepening Understanding

• Review of Definitions:
  • Spiritual formation is “the Spirit’s work of conforming us to Christ, while deformation is the world’s quiet work of conforming us to itself.” (13:31)
  • Expanded: “The journey of orienting life around the presence and way of Jesus in a Spirit-dependent community that joins God in mission.” (15:20)
  • Quoted Robert Mulholland: "Spiritual formation is a voluntary process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others." (16:10)
• Emphasized: Formation expresses itself in three ways—character, authority, and especially community.

3. The Trap of Utilitarian Church—Individualistic Paradigm Exposed

• Western culture ingrains a mindset of using all institutions—including the church—as tools or “utilities” for personal advancement. (19:30)
• Challenged the congregation: “If the community is seen as a utility, it’s easy to leave when it feels like it no longer serves you.” (21:40)
• Notable quote:

  “Most people in the west think the church exists to help them continue to grow in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But family, that is not the primary purpose of the church.” (22:50)

4. Reframing Ecclesiology: The Church as God’s Family and Visible Kingdom

• Definition offered:

  “Ecclesiology is the study of the church, its identity as God’s family, its purpose in the world, and how it embodies his kingdom.” (25:00)

• Provocative core idea:

  “The church is the family through which the future kingdom is made visible.” (26:54)

• Quoted Leslie Newbigin:

  “The church is the hermeneutic of the gospel, the lens through which the world understands what God is like.” (28:40)

• Emphasis: The credibility of the gospel is demonstrated by the community, not by individuals alone.

5. Not Just Explaining—Demonstrating the Gospel

• The job of the church: “Not just to explain the gospel, but to demonstrate what it means.” (29:32)
• Critique: When the church reflects the same divisions and vitriol as the world, it nullifies its witness.

6. Anticipatory Living—Church as a Preview of God’s Future

• N.T. Wright's concept of “anticipatory living”:

  “The church is a community that practices the habits of the future world in the present.” (31:00)

• The church is meant to embody and anticipate God’s ultimate restoration by giving the world a foretaste of what it looks like when “God is finally in charge.”

7. Mission and Community—The Church Exists for the World, Not Just Its Members

• Quoted William Temple (and N.T. Wright):

  “The church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not yet its members.” (34:06)

• The church does not have a mission. Rather, God’s mission has a church. (32:10)
• NT Wright:

  “The church doesn’t exist to provide a place for people to pursue their private spiritual agendas… but as a community that announces to the world that Jesus is Lord.” (32:52)

8. The Privilege and Power of Community

• Moving illustrations: Stories of encouragement within the church, emphasizing “We need each other.” (36:41)
• Joseph Hellerman: “The church is a surrogate kinship group that supersedes biological and social status.” (38:00)
• The church models a new kind of family that often fills the gaps left by one’s biological or social context.

9. The Church as a Signpost from the Future

• “The church is the place where the future has arrived ahead of schedule.” (40:17)
• "You are literally a signpost...pointing to a reality that is not yet, but already is and is to come."
• The church as “an immersion environment” where we learn to speak “the language of our true home before we get there” (see The Arrival film analogy). (42:18)
• Paradigm Shift: “We are not living now just to go to heaven. We didn’t get saved just to go to heaven… salvation is what comes when Christ comes again.” (44:25)
• The goal: To look like Christ—not just a “better you” but Christ formed in you (48:00)

10. Learning the Language of the Future

• “Formation is a process of becoming fluent in the language and vocabulary of the future.” (50:03)
• We can learn vocabulary by study, but only become fluent by being immersed in a culture—in “the church, the immersion environment where you are forced to speak the language of the future with people you didn't choose.” (51:55)
• The language of the future is forgiveness, sacrificial love, unity, kinship—radically counter-cultural practices. (52:59)
• Notable quote:

  “When this is what it looks like, there are no divisions. When this is what it looks like, there are no cliques. When this is what it looks like, there is no preference. This is what it looks like: people forgive one another. This is what it looks like: people love one another. … Church [is] supposed to be a sign of the future.” (53:31–53:57)

11. Tangible Signs: The Lord’s Table

• Communion symbolizes the future kingdom—a place where all believers, regardless of background, stand equal. “Saved by the same grace... No matter their differences, sit at the same table.” (53:53–54:38)

12. Breaking the Veil—Heaven Among Us

• Drawing on Revelation 21, Pastor McDowell notes, “God wants to dwell with his people so bad, he didn’t wait. He sent his son... the veil was torn top to bottom.” (55:10–56:10)
• In moments of “thinness between heaven and earth,” the presence of God is keenly felt in community and worship. (56:25–58:26)

13. Diversity as Divine Wisdom

• Quoting Ephesians 3:10, he emphasizes God’s intent for the church to display “his wisdom in its rich variety”—a multicolored and multicultural reality. (62:19)
• Every time people of different backgrounds gather in unity, they model the future and make the devil watch:

  “He put you in a community where people who don't look like you for a reason... Every time you hold one another's hand... God makes the devil watch.” (64:50–65:08)

14. The Future is Multilingual, Multicultural, and Unified

• Cites Revelation 7:9 and Revelation 21 as images of the final kingdom: all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages together before God. (65:29–66:50)
• Final encouragement: The Lord’s Prayer is a church’s call—as a community, modeling the future now—“Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” (67:56)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We don’t gather just to get something. We gather to show something.” (23:55)
• “The church is the family through which the future kingdom is made visible.” (26:54)
• “The church is assigned…a welcoming family that exists to show the neighborhood what the world will finally look like when God is in charge.” (40:33)
• “You can learn vocabulary by study, but you can’t become fluent until you’re immersed in a culture. The church is the immersion environment…” (51:31)
• “If the church is the present embodiment of God’s future and Christ is the future…formation is the process of becoming fluent in the language and vocabulary of the future.” (50:03)
• “When people come into the community, they see the same thing they see in the world...So they’re like, ‘If you are so different, what makes you different than my fraternity?’” (29:50)
• “He didn’t put you in church for you. He put you in church to model something for some other people, to show the world what it looks like when the final reign of God comes.” (58:43)
• “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (67:56)

Key Timestamps

• 00:40 — Main Scripture and introduction: John 13:34–35
• 09:30–16:10 — Review: Spiritual formation and its communal necessity
• 19:30–23:50 — Critique of individualism and church as utility
• 25:00–26:54 — Definitions of ecclesiology and provocative description of the church
• 28:40–31:00 — The church as gospel hermeneutic; anticipatory living
• 32:52–34:06 — N.T. Wright and the external purpose of the church
• 36:41–39:00 — Community, encouragement, surrogate kinship
• 40:17–43:00 — The church as “the place where the future has arrived ahead of schedule” & The Arrival movie analogy
• 44:25–48:00 — Not just “saved to go to heaven”; the goal is Christlikeness
• 50:03–52:59 — “Learning the language of the future” and the necessity of immersion in community
• 53:31–54:38 — The Lord’s Table as a sign of the coming kingdom
• 55:10–56:10 — The veil torn; God’s presence among his people
• 62:19–65:08 — Church as a display of God’s diverse wisdom
• 65:29–67:56 — Revelation’s vision of unified worship; Lord’s Prayer as model

Conclusion

Pastor William McDowell’s “The Model of the Future” is a rich, paradigm-shifting call to embrace the church as the visible sign of God’s coming kingdom. It’s not about personal utility or private advancement, but about embodying Christ together, here and now, as a diverse, forgiving, united community. The world is watching—and the church’s greatest witness is to model, today, the love, justice, diversity, and oneness that will define eternity.

Final invocation:

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (67:56)