Have you seen any articles that have titles like this: “How to Create Authentic Community in Church”, “Designing Churches for Better Community”, “3 Ways We Can Be Better at Doing Life Together”?
“Community” is a major buzzword in Christian circles. (Often paired with the word “intentional”.) You’ll hear it in church vision statements, in sermon applications and in Bible study covenants. There are plenty of articles about how pastors can facilitate this kind of community – for instance, encouraging churchgoers to ask each other more probing questions than “how are you”.
This is all coming from a good place. After all, we know that spending quality time with other Christians to our Christian walk (Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24-25). We see it modelled in the early churches of the New Testament, where there’s a group of people who operated through diversity (Galatians chapter 3, verse 28), by sharing things in kind (Acts chapter 2, verses 42-47) and by acts of love and faith (2 Thessalonians chapter1, verse 3).
But when we’re so obsessed with building community, are we getting distracted from our actual mission? Is building Christian community meant to be our goal?
Incidental community
When I think of the best experiences I’ve had of community, I can think of plenty of examples in my life where community was created almost without me noticing. Things like camps, Bible study groups and beach mission are springing to mind, where we bonded because we were in a common place, spending time together naturally. Basically, our community grew because we got together not to build community per se, but to do something else.
On the flip side, I’ve seen well-meaning people in the church grow frustrated that their Christian community isn’t working. That their church isn’t mixing together enough. Growing annoyed at ‘that person’ who always leaves before the events start. Feeling as though we’re not being vulnerable together.
But real community tends not to happen when it’s our aim. Missiologist Michael Frost writes in his book Exiles:
I have come to realize that aiming for community is a bit like aiming for happiness. It’s not a goal in itself. We find happiness as an incidental by-product of pursuing love, justice, hospitality and generosity. When you aim at happiness, you are bound to miss it. Likewise with community. It’s not our goal. It emerges as a by-product of pursuing something else.
Community is real when it’s organic. It happens almost without us noticing. It’s not really something we can follow 7 step plans to create with other Christians.
So what does this mean for the church?
Community through a common goal
The anthropologist Victor Turner suggested that real community grows out of a shared mission or ordeal. He called this type of community ‘communitas’. This type of relationship is only experienced by stepping out on a common journey together – something outside the community.
By focusing on something beyond ourselves, our differences are less important because we’re focused on something we do share. Michael Frost writes in Exiles of the early disciples:
Men who otherwise would have nothing to do with each other are thrown together by their shared devotion to Jesus, and as they journey together, they develop a depth of relationship that literally turned the world upside down.
A community that’s dependent on our relationships will turn into a clique. A Christian community that’s centred on a mission for Christ is a Christian community that anyone can be part of, whether they’re newbies or veterans.
I wonder if this could be reflected in our churches? Maybe we should change the question from “Why isn’t community stronger in our church?” to “What can we do together to share what we believe?” This can be anything from local mission, running Bible study groups, supporting a non-profit cause, or starting a new church service.
Maybe it’s time to shift away from worrying about how our Christian community is shaping up, to just getting on with living and working alongside each other. Sharing a mission is what builds Christian community.
NOTES:
I’ve quoted from Michael Frost’s book Exiles, which you can find on Amazon for purchase.
Victor Turner writes about communitas here.
I’m indebted to this article for giving me the inspiration for this topic.
