No doubt, one of the most well used words within the christian culture of the last several years is community. And that can't be a bad thing. But everyone's definition of community is as numerous as the stars.
In one sense I have heard community talked about in the form of a hippie-like christian commune where families share belongings, resources, bills, and privacy. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I've heard of a local pastor's wife talking about replacing the seats within their church's sanctuary with pews so people can sit closer together "to create better community". And I've heard everything in between.
The word community itself can be like a square peg being shoved into the round hole of our religious boundaries. Community is the cool thing now, so we'll somehow meld it into our personal gameplan.
The Bossman and I were recently talking about the elderly. He once asked his grandmother (she's still alive and in her upper 90s) what she did for fun when she was young. She relayed this huge, exciting story about everyone getting together in an old barn late on Saturday nights to...churn butter. That was it. Their "fun" was about working. They worked their asses off all week so that they could get together to work some more on Saturday night. But they sat around and told stories, jokes, laughs, etc while making something for everyone to use all week.
In The Bossman's grandmother's youth, the local church was also a very needed form of community as well as the butter making bash. They worked hard all week at great distances from other people (out in pastures, etc), then Sunday they went to the church house to worship and get reenergized from friendships.
I'm not so sure that this "traditional" church model (ie: go to the building...there's your community) is fully null and void. It must be necessary for someone, as many still employ this method. But some folks live in neighborhoods and areas with great needs. And traveling 20-30 minutes by car to go to a building that might foster a manufactured community would be unnecessary if there's one such community surrounding their home street. Or apartment building.
Community...it's a good word to popularize. Especially if it's a springboard for christians to start serving the least of these. But if it's "meet the new boss, same as the old boss", don't count me in.
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1 comment:
agreed. it is becoming a buzz word. that is unfortunate, because community - doing life together - is exactly what we all need.
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