Because I am a word person, I find myself taking note of phrases or ideas that seem suddenly to be on lots of different people's lips. "Paradigm" was a big one a few years ago. "Passion" was another. A word I am hearing a lot lately is "community". As in "We need community" or "We are a community of faith" or "Let us discern truth together in community". This would be a good time to break into a little hand-wringing about how we Christ-followers in 21st century America are so scatter'd and disconnected from one another and how that leads us to be disconnected from God and then throw in problems with technology and modernization and...well, you know all the stanzas to that chorus, don't you? So I won't go there.
We all know there is a problem, and we try to solve it by trying to make the other guy do something. Maybe we try some programs - which actually and occasionally work - not so much because of the program but because a good group of people comes together and forms a covenant relationship out of the deal. (In spite of the program, not because of it, in other words.) Maybe we pound the problem into every sermon at church, telling people they HAVE to start being a community, darn it! Get moving, people! (Note to leaders everywhere - shame never works.) Or maybe we form a clique, which actually can feel like a community for those who are included. (Stinks for those on the outside, however - which means that it is, in fact, not really a picture of biblical community.)
The Bible talks about community not as something to force, manage or program, but as something we already ARE. But when I think about the language of Scripture, I want to weep. We do all that we can to not be what we already are.
A congregation whose hearts are rent in repentance might be the genesis for true community in our churches.
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