What is Community?
It's been a while. Sorry. I started a new job, have been out of town a lot, and I have two crazy dogs that take up more time than they should. But, I had time tonight, so I decided to write. Here are some of my thoughts on the question, What is community?
The questions we ask determine our direction. What is most important to us, what we value, the people we love, everything comes down to the questions we ask. How we answer them with our lives shows others what matters most to us. And, whether we are aware of our answers or not, we are all asking questions. For a while now, I have asked questions often in response to something that bothers me.
Maybe the reason something bothers me is because I have damaged myself, or because someone damaged me. Perhaps it is because I had an experience that colors my worldview. But, maybe it is because there is something legitimate that should be bothering me. It is not always easy to get to the root of what bugs me, but I would be a miserable person if I didn't ask, Why?
When my stomach hurts, I ask myself, Why? (Two bowls of ice cream before bed will do that to most people.) When my boss tells me to do something that I think is unwise, I ask Why? When church becomes a one-day-a-week destination, when it resembles business rather than a family, when an individual is elevated about the rest, when there are titles, bosses and offices that matter more than relationships and the saints walking in their gifts, I ask, Why?
I have often asked the question, Why do we do church this way?, I inevitably found myself pursuing a series of deeper questions and ultimately asking What is community?
I grew up in a "mega" church in Georgia. Great place, great people, and the context where my spiritual life was formed and nurtured. But, as I sought to make sense of following Christ and what the Scriptures point toward for His followers, there were some things I couldn't quite wrap my head around. Success seemed to be directly proportional to the number of members our church had, the number of "decisions" after an event, and the number of people who were baptized on Sundays. There was something different about the one person who got up and talked every Sunday as compared to everyone else--his words, gifts and opinions mattered more. I saw gifted and passionate sisters and brothers in Christ be passive in their faith as they sat and watched a finely-tuned, high quality production. And, nearly twenty years later, things look the same there.
When I studied 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 and pondered the body of Christ and the various gifts given to all the saints, I couldn't seem to reconcile what I saw with what I read.
To be fair, I saw a lot that resonated with what I drew from the Scriptures, and much of what I gathered there has become part of what I build upon now. But most of this came from outside the regular gatherings. I learned from mature-in-faith women and men who walked alongside me, corrected me, listened to me, affirmed my gifts and engaged my questions. Yet it is what challenges our assumptions that forces us to reexamine the questions we are asking. The things I agreed with, I didn't question. But I never took the time to discover the answers for myself. It is not because I didn't trust the people around me, but because I would ultimately be the one to give account for my life.
We must ask questions--not because tradition is always wrong, and not because what has been is necessarily evil. But because, in doing so, we may truly own our faith and fully engage our calling. And who knows? Perhaps we will look more like Jesus along the way.
Earlier this year, Christa and I wrote an article in which we discuss community, among other things. Since the affirmations we made then about community still hold true, I figured I would just modify some of what we say about community for you here:
------------------------------------------------------
What is community? Central among the thematic elements of Scripture is the notion of community. Many point to the themes of kingdom and covenant as the most pervasive ideas of the Bible, but community may be even more fundamental than these, as both kingdom and covenant found themselves on community. All things were created by a triune, communal God who cast his image onto humanity, and community is an integral part of who we are as humans. But, what is community? Considering the whole of Scripture, we define Christ-centered community as a group of diverse but equal individuals, interdependent on one another and united in love by the pursuit of a shared, transcendent purpose. We contend that community, thus, consists of six foundational characteristics: shared transcendent purpose, unity, diversity, equality, love, and interdependence. While there is overlap, none of these distinctives can be actualized independently of the others. Recognizing the prevalence of community as a programmatic theme of Scripture is necessary in order to reframe the conversation concerning all aspects of community. It informs our notion of authority and provides the framework in which we must regard this issue.
Shared transcendent purpose The new-covenant community carries out the purpose for which Israel was set apart: that of being a royal priesthood (Exod 19:5; 1 Pet 3:5; Rev 5:9) and conduit of the blessing of God to all peoples (Gen 12, Abrahamic covenant). The new-covenant priesthood offers sacrifices of lives fully devoted to God in communal life (Rom 12:1–2), which shows the world who Christ is. The Old Testament covenants are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Through him and by his example, the new-covenant community grounds itself in humility and on considering others as better than oneself (Phil 2:1–11). This community sees the promise of blessing that was given to Abraham coming to fruition when all peoples are included within Christ-centered community as recipients of the Holy Spirit.
Unity Christ-centered community finds unity in being the people of God. Unity is central to community, and we see it from the very heart of God in the prayer of Jesus in John 17. Unity is to exist among the members of the community and also between the community and God. In a moment of great distress, Jesus prays for unity among future believers because it is essential to the message of the gospel being believed through those connected to Christ. Further, we see the centrality of unity expressed repeatedly in the letters to the early churches. Paul, specifically, is deeply concerned with unity; thus, disunity in various churches becomes the catalyst for several of his letters. This notion of unity comes to define Christ-centered community and individual new covenant believers. Unity becomes all the more important as the community of Christ grows and becomes increasingly diverse, reaching to include even the Gentiles.
Diversity Not only does this new community include Gentiles in addition to Jews, but it also includes women, slaves, the poor, the wealthy, and all others in society. Those included in the community are diverse, and the inclusiveness of the community of God has been revealed since the promise to bless all people groups was given to Abraham. The beauty of diversity within the new-covenant community is seen on the day of Pentecost, when people “from every nation under heaven” witnessed the power of the Spirit (Acts 2:5).
As diversity is seen in the people who make up the community, there is also diversity in terms of what these members do within the community. The functional diversity of Christ-centered community is most clearly seen through spiritual gifts. Every follower of Christ has been given a spiritual gift or gifts by the authority of the Spirit (Heb 2:4), and these gifts coincide with how God has uniquely called all members to minister. Everyone is gifted to serve, not just a select few, “since all have something to give, there are no mere spectators in church but only active participants.” The metaphor of the body of Christ seen in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 is one that values each part as vital to the life of the whole. And, within this community, gifts are to be exercised with zeal and eagerness (Rom 12:6–8). The diversity of the members is essential to the body working effectively as each member’s designated function serves to benefit the whole. In regard to building up the body, every gift that contributes to this end has deep value. However, no gift, ministry, or person is to be valued as greater or lesser than another, as equality is also central.
Equality Within this diverse body, united by the Spirit of God and called to the purpose of modeling Christ in community, is a powerful realization of equality, demonstrated primarily through the use of family language. The significance of the family in the ancient Greco-Roman world is far different than that of our modern, Western understanding. While we might think of the husband-and-wife bond as the closest relationship in our society, in ancient Mediterranean society, the “tightest unit of loyalty and affection is the descent group of brothers and sisters" (Joseph H. Hellerman, The Ancient Church as Family, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2001, 36.) It is fitting, therefore, that the sibling model becomes the chief and defining relationship between members of the body of Christ.
Matthew 23 highlights the centrality of familial language to the new-covenant community. Jesus contrasts the behavior of the religious leaders of his day with the way his followers are supposed to live humbly with a mindset of equality, saying,
But you are not to be called “Rabbi,” for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth “father,” for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called “teacher,” for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matt 23:8–12)
On the basis of the brother-sister relational model, no one person should exalt himself or herself above others. God is Master and Father, and Christ is Teacher. Essential authority is in God, and the intimacy of the sibling relationship is to govern the new covenant believers' interpersonal relationships in Christ-centered community. This strong sense of equality founds itself on the humble love modeled by Jesus (Phil 2:5–11).
Love Love is the guiding attitude of Christ-centered community. Without love, all pursuits are in vain, and all other aspects of community crumble. The bond of love among followers of Christ is the means by which the gospel is proclaimed and believed. Christ-centered community finds its fulfillment in being defined by love and humility that is countercultural and transformational, and this love stems from interdependence on one another.
Interdependence Because of the depth of shared transcendent purpose, unity, diversity, equality, and love, members of Christ-centered community are mutually interdependent on one another. A Christ-centered community cannot exist with a party of one, but requires dependence on others. Can someone be baptized alone? Can someone celebrate the Lord’s Supper alone? These are communal acts, because the new covenant community is an organic, catalytic body that revolutionizes its culture through love and service to one another. This love is the greatest cause for evangelism, as it is the lifeblood of contagious community.
Further, the concept of partnership in the gospel is significant, as we see brothers and sisters laboring alongside one another in the advancement of the gospel. We see this primarily in the letters of Paul as he uses honorable titles to refer to men and women in various communities, not to bring them glory, but to glorify the God of the gospel. Phoebe is a leader, “patron [or great help] of many” (Rom 16:2); Priscilla and Aquila are “fellow workers in Christ Jesus” (Rom 16:3); the church at Philippi consists of those who have entered into “partnership” with Paul (Phil 1:5), “partakers” (Phil 1:7), and two women among them who are in conflict are even called those “who have labored side by side” with Paul (4:2–3). In many other places, Paul commends those who contribute to the mission of the gospel, but never calls anyone his “disciple.” Paul knew that being a member of Christ’s body meant serving with others, since “the life of freedom involves interdependence, particularly with those who belong to the Christian community, resulting in a mutual serving of one another.” On the basis of mutual service within community we find a proper lens for viewing authority.
------------------------------------------------------
The content above, and much more that is on my heart and mind, informs pretty much my entire philosophy of life. And it definitely informs what I think church is, and what I think it is not. More of that to come soon, but the next question I want to talk through is What is authority?
Thanks for reading!
Got thoughts or questions? Leave a comment!