It’s a buzz word. It’s often misunderstood. It’s central to the Christian faith and yet so absent from many churches. Community. It would be appropriate to launch into sociological reflection on the dearth of community in our culture, drawing from observations made by sociologists like Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone, Better Together) in order to demonstrate the human desire and decline of community, but I don’t have the time or expertise. Instead, I will address two main issues with our attempts to find community. First, defective Christian views of community are based on unbiblical notions of the Church. Second, true community is based not on what you do but who you are.
I still have to wonder and question why it seems like many in the church today are against this idea of “community.” They seem to think its some evil conspiracy of the purpose driven church.
Jonathan Dodson talks more about this in his recent article for Next-Wave Ezine:
The church is not just people; its God’s living room, his neighborhood.
But even with Jesus dying to remake people into better, worshiping, missional communities, the Church still remains defective. The family of God is dysfunctional. Why? Because at the center of community we too often have a set of rules, not the gospel.
Most communities fluctuate in their success based on how well people keep the rules of the community. For instance, if I join a book club my acceptance in the club will likely go up or down based on how well I understood the book, know the author, and can discuss his ideas. My sense of acceptance from the community is related to things I do, not who I am. The same is true for most community outlets in this world. If I am part of a Fantasy Football community, my sense of significance will ride upon how well I know my player stats and football trivia. Bottom line, the strength of a community is often determined by how well I perform, by what I do or don’t do, not who I am.
So what can we as a church body and a community of believers do to ensure that people feel significance based solely on who they are and not what they do?
All too often Christian communities have rules at their center, not the gospel. If you read the Bible, don’t drink beer, and “go to church,†you’re accepted. If you do the opposite, you are not accepted. This is religion, not the gospel. Religion says “I obey a set of rules and I am accepted,†but the message of Jesus was “You are accepted by my grace and as a result you obey and follow me.†As dysfunctional people we need something more than performance to bind us together. We need something that provides acceptance and forgiveness even when we fail one another. We also need something big enough to satisfy our infinite appetites for community, something divine. We need Jesus.
Jesus is sufficient for our failures and successes in community
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