One of the most profound paradigm shifts I’ve had over the past few years is my understanding of community, particularly the community of believers and individual communities of faith. It goes right along with the realization that the church really is the people, not the building with the steeple. (See, I made a rhyme! Do it all the time!)
Anyhow…ahem.
When I had a more traditional picture of the church, even though I acknowledged that the people were the church, I still held to the idea that the local church entity was the only God-ordained expression of how those people ought to meet together–a structured entity with defined leadership and chain-of-command, a clear vision statement, an organized routine…you know the drill. When you see the church this way, it affects how you view everything. It becomes our obligation to create communities that look like this, and church planting (a term not actually found in the Bible) is reduced to the practice of creating such communities, one after the other. In this sense, community isn’t really defined by whether the people in the group are actually in fellowship with one another–what’s more important is whether they regularly attend the meetings and functions. Community becomes a duty, an obligation, rather than a dynamic of belonging and fellowship and relationship.
When we walk away from these created communities–even if it’s a search for something more real and more meaningful–a couple of things usually happen. First–the community left behind expresses concern, and sees us as “lost sheep”, warns of the dangers of isolation, etc….or sometimes just quietly ignores us. Whatever form it actually takes, it usually involves black-labeling. Second–we ourselves actually feel the sense of isolation and aloneness, because pretty much everyone familiar has remained in the created community. So while we don’t really want to go back, at the same time we feel this genuine, legitimate need for community that isn’t currently being filled. It is that need for belonging that actually drew so many of us into the blogosphere to find one another–because although it isn’t face-to-face, at least it’s something. 🙂
What I’ve found interesting over the time I’ve been “out here”, though, is that when we start finding others in the same boat as we are, this need for fellowship (along with maybe a tinge of guilt for abandoning our relative communities) begin nudging us to look for ways to form new communities with one another. It seems the natural course of events, doesn’t it?
But wait. Wait just one cotton-pickin’ minute. (That kind of talk comes from my many years living in the south.)
We came out of created communities that somehow weren’t fitting the bill. So now we are going to create new ones? Wouldn’t that be just as self-defeating as what we just left behind?
I have a theory (and that’s all it is at this point) that part of the problem is that we keep trying to create Christian community out of sense of obligation that we’re supposed to, rather than allowing community to happen naturally and taking our cues from how it forms. I’ve heard several tales of short-lived “organic” get-togethers, house churches forming, etc. And many of them don’t last long, quite possibly, because as much as we crave genuine community, once we get a taste of freedom from the duty to be part of a created community, we chafe at the feeling that we have to do it again. That weight feels like a shackle on our soul. In fact, it seems like almost any time we try to organize ourselves into something, it doesn’t work very well.
So I’m just wondering if we’re missing the point again? Maybe even outside the walls, we still have a bit of deconstructing to do in our thinking.
I’ll continue this thread in part 2, but if you have any thoughts so far…let me know. 🙂
Wayward Son
Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo.
I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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I've had this thought rolling around in my head for the past 2 weeks but can't find a good word picture to explain it. My thoughts are much the same. Here is the thought process in my head: "Created communities" (CLB's) may have been built on a false paradigm. Therefore to ask ourselves "What can replace the old thing," we may be asking ourselves the WRONG question. If something is invalid you really cannot replace it. A drug addiction cannot really be replaced. It has to be left behind. There is nothing to replace the high you get from it. It is irreplaceable BECAUSE it is illegitimate or again, built on a false premise! Just thinking along the same lines.
Community becomes a duty, an obligation, rather than a dynamic of belonging and fellowship and relationship,
that's so true, it's what is missing and yet what we all truly hunger for. we all have that same unrelenting hunger within us. and when that hunger is not met and remains unfulfilled in us, we become desperate in the sense that we accept created community in the hopes of yet still finding the authentic thing in there !
I can relate to much of what you are saying – having lived through much of what you are describing. I have been dissatisfied with the traditional denominational church for years. At the same time I have also been part of a relationally-based family of churches, including several years in a house church, and did not find that perfect either even though it was a great blessing and a time of much growth in my life. Whenever we define ourselves by what we are leaving behind I think we run the risk of going to an opposite extreme, or falling into the ditch on the other side of the road so to speak. In particular, despite the problems with the traditional church which are well described in your post, I'm not convinced that it's either possible or desirable to have community with no structure at all. Organic doesn't mean "lacking in structure" – just look at living organisms, they are flexible and adaptable to be sure, and full of life, but also quite highly organized and complex. However the structure exists to enable life to flourish, rather than the other way around. Further, when natural organisms reproduce they quite naturally reproduce according to the DNA that is in them. There's nothing wrong with this either – as long as we recognize (to apply the illustration to churches) that fellowships with a different DNA can be equally valid as the one I am a part of, as long as we share the same core biblical values. But if we are looking for community without any planning or structure, and see this as the hallmark of true Christian community, I think we misunderstand both the New Testament and the lessons observable from the natural created order. Just some food for thought …
I've been looking for a "birthed" community, one that will catch me by surprise, as in I'm already in one,and I just don't know it(I am in one; I just don't know it.)To keep myself from trying to politicize it,ursurping Spirit control of it and thus killing it, I'm choosing to remain ignorant…!
I have noticed one thing though about "created communities": sometimes community does happen there in spit of themselves, but on a smaller more relational and usually temporary scale.
How do we better sustain love in comunity; we're good at the obligation side…
Barb,
That's a really interesting analogy, leaving something behind rather than replacing it. I think a great many times we replace one wrong thing with another because we are asking the wrong question. Good point.
Ruth,
I think we often go back to a form we're not happy with, simply because we haven't any idea what else it could look like. Not just with community–2000 years of church history (while it shouldn't be forgotten) sometimes also gets in our way because we do things the wrong way for so long, we don't have any grid for the right way.
Wisdom Hunter,
I think you're sorta getting ahead of me (this is only part 1, remember). 🙂 I'm not suggesting that organic community has no structure, or that structure is a bad thing. I just think we are trying to stretch community across a structure it isn't intended for, rather than allowing the structure to be defined by the formation. It would be like trying to make a dog act like a cat, just because we're more familiar with cats; or some of the cultural things we do that aren't natural, like women's corsets or the Asian practice of binding little girls' feet to keep them small. That's a good picture of what I sometimes see with community; we're trying to make it fit something, and it ends up deformed. The focus is on the familiar structure, rather than the relationships within it.
Rob,
It is worth highlighting that yes, true community does happen in created settings, because we are built that way; and I think it's great when we do that. It isn't an either/or; just maybe a "could-we-maybe-do-this-better?" 🙂 Thanks.
Interesting comments…
The organic cell "model" for the church has been around for quite some time. But it too has tended to be imposed upon the church as a system; as another way of "doing" church. But if we are desiring real community, then I think having a more organic cell type structure vrs an institutional/organizational one, moves us in the right direction.
Yes, a cell does have definite structure. But I think the key is it is its being impowered by the Spirit rather than [mainly] the efforts of men. In the Spirit that structure is living structure. And we understand that as an ideal… But how well do our communities live it?
So what's the problem? (What's one of the problems?!) We get in the way, our "creativity" gets in the way. We keep trying to re-create(re-invent) the wheel. Our many attempts to create the latest, greatest, new structure or form for making church/community happen get's in the way, it becomes an imposition:
What WE impose upon the church, we are at the same time imposing upon the Spirit.
We keep trying to pour something new into what is, in essence, old.
So, yes, old wineskins do need to be left behind… "Created communities" probably are built on a false [an old and dead] paraigm. It is only the Spirit that brings life to communities.
New wine needs new wineskins. And we potenially are the new containers of the Spirit's new wine. If the containers of the new wine are the gathered vessels, from the 2 or 3 or more, gathered in His name, and they are freely flowing with and in the Spirit, there you have community.
Structured, yes, definitly. Forced and artificial, no.
But the BIG question in "communities" (insert "the church" if you want) is, who is in control? Who is really in charge?!
Is He
or are we?
(See Jeff I too can ryhme…
I do it all the time! 😉
This is actually where I'm at right now. I left my church about a month ago, though my husband still attends. I really disliked the "performance-style" vibe that went on there. It felt like we should have brought popcorn, with the concert(supposed worship band), the stand-up comedian (supposed pastor), and the lack of fellowship (typically, people leave right after a show. they don't stay and chat, because they want to be the first out of the parking lot). This was the case. Very little scripture was used, during the message, and I prayed hard and felt God yelling, "Get out of there!" This church was willing (and still is) to compromise the Gospel, for the sake of making others comfortable, to what they're familiar with, even if that means causing them to sin, further. Church becomes a rock concert or a big youtube video. This is not the way God intended for believers to "gather." I am sure of it. We need to be careful with whom we gather, and with whom we let speak into our lives. We need to be sensitive to the Spirit's leading and not just "go with the flow", because this can get us into trouble. I've considered starting a house church, but realized that my intentions were hasty. After giving it much thought, I'm just going to invite believers over for a meal, maybe watch a Christian movie (believe it or not, there are a lot of good ones, if you're not watching it for entertainment purposes), and just talk "Jesus", and what He's doing in our lives. Studying the bible together is important, too. But, we get so caught up in letting the pastor speak to us, weekly, that we don't think to test what he says with scripture. I see many Christians fall into error, because they've been deceived. Outreach can be done with a few believing friends, also. Where in the bible does it say we're to gather with masses of people and put our kids in "Sunday School"? If we really read our bibles, we'd see how much freedom we have in Christ. We wouldn't feel obligated to regularly attend any such "meeting" to worship God. I don't need a meeting to worship. I can have church at my house tonight with 3 of my Christian friends.
I recommend, So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore?, by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman, as well as, Organic Church, by Neil Cole. Although we should never create another "church group" out of rebellion or anger, we should never forsake the gathering of the believers. (Hebrews 10:25) As the day of Christ's coming approaches, we're instructed to gather "all the more." We should not let divisions come between us, because we are the body of Christ, and a family, however, sometimes it is best to leave.