I've really come to believe recently that community may be the most important aspect of our discipleship under Jesus. For years I was told to read my Bible, pray, journal, etc., as these things would draw me to God and help me be a better Christian. No one really spoke of community. It was present, but it was never talked about as something necessary to our discipleship, at least, not to my recollection. More and more, though, I've come to see that community is essential to our discipeship because it is where we experience the risen Christ most accutely. The Bible, prayer, etc. are all important and necessary as part of our discipleship, but in true Christian community I believe we experience the risen Christ most powerfully and completely.
My three and a half year old loves the kids in my ministry, from the junior high through the college age. There are a number of them who have baby-sat him, who regularly come by to visit us and end up playing with him, and who stay with us and have become part of the family (almost like an older sibling for him). The students really care about him, interact with him, treat him as important. I don't think it's just because they feel like they should. I think they want to, because it's who they are at the core of their being: caring, loving, communally-oriented. Nothing could please me more than to have my son grow up as part of a true Christian community. They are actively helping raise my son, showing him what it means to live as Jesus on earth. What else could a parent ask for?
Below is a picture of Donald reading Curious George to my son, Elijah. It's just one example of the kind of love the students have for my son, and one example of why I love Christian community so much.
shalom, matt
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6 comments:
I agree with everything, I just wish we could find another buzz word besides "community" for "hip" Christians to abuse. I'm sick of hearing the word community. It conjures up images of Christian yuppies in their Christian soccer leagues.
a like to use the word communal living or to steal from Bonhoeffer "life together." it's much more specific than "community." a lot of what we tend to pass of as community isn't community at all, at least not in the biblical sense of a shared life.
upon much research (thesaurus.com) due to sheer boredom... i found some alternative words for community...
association (too board membery)
brotherhood (or just 'hood for short)
society (given the town we live in, maybe society isn't the best way to go)
colony (oregon trail anyone? actually i like the definition for this one.... (from dictionary.com)
1. a group of people who leave their native country to form in a new land a settlement subject to, or connected with, the parent nation.)
commonality (i actually like this one too. also from dictionary.com)
1. Also, commonality. the ordinary people, as distinguished from those with authority, rank, station, etc.; the common people.
2. an incorporated body or its members.
p.s. commonality is spelled can also be spelled commonalty...
Brotherhood is probably closer to the biblical view of the whole thing. In Acts, is says that "they devoted themselves to the fellowship..." We usually use the word fellowship to mean pot-luck dinners and ridiculous softball games, but the word is actually brotherhood which denotes a group of people who are so intimately connected with one another that they would die for one another.
christian colony is a good term too. Hauerwas uses it in his book "Resident Aliens." brotherhood works well too. fellowship is a useless term that makes me want to vomit when i hear it.
okay, it's not that bad, because some fellowship does take place. by that i mean relationships are connected and re-connected and strengthened by just being together. the "problem" with our version of fellowship is that it stops at pot-lucks and softball games. it must progress beyond that to, like you've said, an intimate connection with one another where we would die for each other. unfortunately it doesn't get to that as often as it should.
it's just the rampant individualism in the Church and the Gospel message that we proclaim rearing its ugly head.
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