Community: Gospel Inclusion & Western Seclusion
“What is community?”
Yuck. What a boring question.
Let’s answer one a bit more compelling:
Why is community?
As disciples, why should we cultivate it? Why is it a biblical imperative? And what are the benefits of living in community?
When I think about biblical community, I automatically turn to Acts 2:42-47. This passage is a beautiful description of ideal community for followers of Jesus, and I believe we can learn a few things from what the early church modeled. Let’s look at the scripture together:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Community takes commitment—it doesn’t happen accidentally. While the raw desire for nearness with others may develop organically as we come to know the Father, real community requires more than just crossing paths once a week or bumping into each other when our church pulls off impressive programs. Yes, services and programs are good for community. They often help us get the “corporate worship” part right.
But real community extends far beyond those walls and runs way over the edges of our Sunday bulletins. Our connection with one another can’t be left to chance meetings happening just before and after the pastor preaches. Paths can’t only cross when the church staff organizes its next function. The initiative and responsibility to know and be known, love and be loved, lift and be lifted by fellow siblings in Christ can’t rest only with the people who are paid to do it. It’s not your pastor’s job to build your relationships for you.
Like much in the western cultural church, that hands-off approach produces weak, sleepy, non-missional, non-disciple-making disciple communities.
True gospel community takes courage and vulnerability. In order to say we are in community with other people, we should know them and they should know us. That takes effort. Committed, sustained, press-through-the-awkwardness-and-Tonya’s-not-so-great-meatball-platters kind of effort. No matter the cost, we simply must spend time together, share with one another, invite one another, call one another, text one another, go to the other people’s kid’s birthday parties with one another.
We simply must choose to enjoy the presence of our local brothers and sisters.
Authentic community happens when we allow people into our lives and our homes—our time and our stuff. Unfortunately, a western cultural addiction to busyness and excess has taught us a self-defeating model of communal seclusion, rather than inclusion. We value our comfort, our privacy, and our resources so much that our preoccupation with these things prevents us from developing authentic connections with others. Excessive seclusion turns our whole concept of community inward on itself, and community becomes “me-focused.” How will I leverage community this month to fit my schedule, my needs, my wishes, and my growth? But this is clearly backwards.
The Acts 2 passage reminds us that community isn’t only about us. It’s about at least two other things: first, other people; and second, the movement of the gospel. As disciples, then, we ought to pursue community wholeheartedly. Because Christlike communities don’t make themselves. Neither do disciples. We have to train ourselves to resist a culture of excessive seclusion for the sake of gospel-centered inclusion. We need to be people who cultivate safe places for others, as much as we do for ourselves. And as we align our hearts with this vision, we’ll find our communities more naturally create an environment fit for making disciples.
Jon and I have been married five years, and our only home has been on the campus of Emmanuel College. It’s pretty atypical. We live in the bottom of a dorm with 90+ freshman guys living above our apartment, while some 500 other students live near us in neighboring dorms. They walk past our door on their way to class, in between our cars on their way to dinner. We hear their voices, music, movies, video games, and other sometimes-unidentifiable things through our walls and ceiling. We don’t always do it right. But we’re thankful we’ve experienced what it’s like to live in a community with hundreds of neighbors, some of whom we work and do life closely with. While there are definitely moments we wish for more privacy than we have, we do our absolute best to embrace these days, love our students, and provide safe places for them. This season has taught us about the benefits (and challenges!) of what community offers each neighbor. Transparency, accountability, generosity, conflict-resolution, encouragement—these and more come by doing life with others.
Obviously, not everyone can physically live in a community. We can, however, all purposely make space in our life so authentic community can happen. We must. Messages don’t move in a vacuum. The gospel’s movement is the burden of the whole discipleship community.
We start well by asking ourselves this question: are we willing to let our lives be interrupted? Can we be transparent with those in our community? Or held accountable? Can we be generous with our personal space, time, and our resources? So, I encourage us all to choose community, and not just wait for it to come our way. Let us be a people that allow the interruptions in order to create authentic community.
