The Church: A Community Unto a King
Nov 02
This post is an essay in the competition for Energion’s Publication Blogging/Essay Contest on the 21st Centruy Church. Today I hope to share with you a perspective on the Church.
Lets start with a definition for community.
Community is love’s victory over death, lived -by ordinary people- in union with Christ, by the grace of his victory.
We Were Created As One Big Family/Community
“Be fruitful and multiply”. This was God’s command to Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were to cultivate the Garden (the place where God dwelled on Earth) reproduce and move this cultivation over the entire world. The beauty of the Garden they were created in was to permeate the entire known globe. Even Iceland! There was to be one family in the world beginning withAdam and living in harmony for eternity. However, sin entered the world and from the jump this garden began to bear thorns and thistles and the harmony-unity-oneness that mankind was to posses was destroyed and we see the first offspring murder his brother. The Community became disunity as sin began to reign supreme. Death, decay and destruction entered human history and as we now look back over the years from the fall today, we see a world of chaos……
A King Enters Human History
However, God did not leave us in total chaos, as He sent a King to rule over us, a King that restores order, a King that reestablishes the Garden, a King that brings unity where disunity has reigned. That King is Jesus the Christ. That King entered Human History as the most unlikely and unorthodox King ever. This King, instead of riding in on a great Stallion, rides in on a donkey, instead of His birth being announced and the entire region bowing to Him, He will bow His head to them, instead of getting the care only Kings deserve He was born in a manger, raised in obscurity, lived the life of a common carpenter, was rejected by those who were to adore Him, and even worse He was even murdered as a common criminal whose life was worthless to most. This King pronounced a Kingdom that was upside down, a kingdom where peace brings domination, where love controls, a kingdom where service and the lowly places are the highest seats in the room, a kingdom where death is life, loss is gain and hunger, mourning and peacemaking will bring about an eternal dwelling. But most of all this Kingdom is a Community where the King moves as He pleases for His good pleasure.
So Lets Talk Community
A 21st Century Church should look like a Community. A group of ordinary people made alive by the grace of God pursuing one common goal. That goal is Christ. We are the embodiment of Christ. Look at what Paul says in Ephesians 1:
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
The Fullness of God dwelled in bodily form in Christ as Colossians says, that same body, that same fullness now indwells US. Us is very important, because I am not the church and you are not the church and he is not the church nor is she, only they, them and us are the church. And where we, us and them are there is Christ. Paul attempts to communicate this in every epistle and is his driving point, if we miss this, we miss everything, are self-centered, autonomous, demonationalistic, divisive culture has so divided the body of Christ that it is no longer a body, but a mangled foot, hand, arm and leg, attempting to be sewed together and had produced a 21st century Frankenstein. We have al the body parts but because they all want to work individually and has created this stiff and rigid monster perpetrating as the body of Christ. Community should be very far from our lips and especially mine.
Community Demands “Common”
When the disciples met with Christ, He was modeling community before them. They asked “where are you staying” and He answered “come and see”. From that day forward they lived in a community, sharing, eating, living amongst, and knowing one another. They would have looked at what we giggle at today as a cult. We think that type of life on life is appalling, idiotic, unnecessary, we believe that type of life is too radical, ridiculous, we cling on to our autonomy like it is a right, my friends it is not. We belong to a King. A King who has created us for this community a community to reflect who He is.
Throughout history there have been many Christians who have made the decision under the Lordship of Christ to pursue this type of Community, they have gone by many names, we can just call them the Anabaptist I want to focus on three aspects of their community.
a. A Sharing Community
Many of the Anabaptist took Jesus’ words quite seriously. We all may say we do, but this isn’t really true. A “common purse” was a defining factor, and to be honest, the more I read the scriptures, the more I realize that this is what the early church really believed. Acts says that “they held ALL things in common” and “no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own” . This was one thing that the Anabaptist in the 16th century were ridiculed for, but this wasn’t something they conjured up, but something they saw in scripture. Throughout Acts, John and James. The Anabaptist did not believe in “love in theory”, but just as God’s love was tangible by sending His Son, and the Son’s love was tangible by “taking on the form of a servant” and just like the believers in Acts love was shown by holding nothing with a closed fist, and we would suspect that the writing of James and John were applied, thus their love was tangible and would say “we love you” but would let others go hungry and destitute while they were “clothed and well fed”. This caused the “Reformers” to mock and even persecute these believers (read The Reformers and Their Stepchildren for more info). Then, we too are to be a sharing community, this is something we have failed miserably at, but something we see making its way back. From “Justice” movements to some believers moving back into impoverished areas, the move back towards meeting the physicalneeds (God saves the whole man, the curse being reversed isn’t just spiritual, and bring the Kingdom in means restoring).
b. A Teaching Community
Another aspect of community is that it was a teaching community. I am not speaking of education alone, though education was very important. Let me stay their for a minute. Many of the Anabaptist took biblical scholarship seriously. They were not a group of mystic misfits holding some subjective spirituality, they were trained in the scriptures and not only that, many were trained in the languages and trained others just as well. They took the study of the scripture seriously. So seriously that the Reformers of the 16th century were blown away by the smallest and most uneducated of them being able to quote large portions of scripture and this includes the illiterate. A side note here. Please flee the church or the man who tells you that theology is not important, he/they will take you on a ride in a direction opposite of Christ.
So they were both educationalbut even more important they were practical, they took the teachings of Jesus quite seriously so they applied what they learned. The Great Commission calls us to teach, a teaching that makes disciples of the recipients of that teaching. Today we must bring education back to the local church, we have to be a teaching community. Even if people don’t want to learn. If they do not want to learn, then you must let them leave, we can’t move off of the course of “teaching” because it is in the Great Commission. Biblical ownership in the West is at an all time high. I own 5 differnent versions and about 6 bibles myself, this does not include my wife’s bibles, a earn two editions of the same translation. Many others do also; however, biblical literacy is at an all time low, knowing the metanarrative, scripture memory and a clear and concise understanding of the bible is embarrassing with all of our bibles and bible study tools. We must be a teaching community, teaching that is to only be successful by the transformation it brings. This is why the priesthood of believers was very important, the Reformers quoted it, but the Anabaptist LIVED it.
c. An Open Community
Here is where we judge how well our community is. Many have been known to do the first two and ultimately turn into cults. The reason being is that the community was self-focused and it implodes. Any energy that does not burn off begins to feed on itself and as this energy produces more energy it becomes dangerous to the point that it destroys itself. The energy itself isn’t the problem, the outlet of that energy is. As we see in the Old Testament Israel was to be a “light among the nations”. They were to radiate God’s glory to nations around it, but even further back, Adam and Eve were not to stay in the Garden but to take the Garden all over the world, cultivating it for God. The church today has a mission, it is to be a community that “cultivates” the world. It is to be an energy that is to be “the light of the world”. We are to bring life, light and warmth to a dead, dark and cold world. Whenever we decide that we will put a “lamp shade” over ourselves to protect our own light, we lose focus on what we were called out of the world to be. Jesus says “I will not take you out of the world”. We are to be citizens of heaven, yet residents of the world, we are to be “in the world but not of the world” we are to overtake the world withlight as Ephesians tells us to do and my friends this is what transpires in the book of Acts. Their radical care for the world around them so radiated that they were called “Christians”. Now many people may have thought they were like the many other “ekklesias” around them, but they also said this group is unique. There wasn’t any secrecy like the others (many other groups around this time were considered ekklesia but most were secret societies, maybe Colossians deals with this). They shared what they had in common in public. The world around them saw their love in action and was moved by such an openness.
We too have to move outside of our 4 walls, rather that 4 walls is a building or a home. Where we meet is irrelevant, because we are to take that “garden/community” and attempt to cultivate the land with it. We are to bring the peace, healing, life and justice that Jesus brought to others. He healed the blind, fed the hungry, loved the rejected and embraced the mocked. Our community in the 21st Century must do the same, we are to prepare the whole world for the returning King. This could be an area where some of the Anabaptist failed, but again many have been great at doing this very thing.
Final Thoughts
We are a community, we have but one leader, one head, one CEO, one Chief Shepherd and He is the Lord Jesus Christ, who now indwells us in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is our guide, compass and roadmap. We will only be a community as much as we allow Him to be the head of the community. Are we looking for perfection? Well, yes! But perfection is embodied in a person and we look to Him and depend on Him and rely on Him and find grace in Him, so even in our failure, we succeed because we are IN HIM.
One thing I forgot to mention is that we are to be a diverse community. We should not dress the same, look the same, have the same hobbies, the same passions (other than Christ), we may have differences on many things, but the glue which holds the community together is a person. We are His body and He is the Head. The greatness of this community that He is creating is its diversity. This makes us a greater witness to the world. Only something (better yet someone) supernaturalal can bring different ethnicities, economic statuses, cultural distinctives, socioeconomic statues, age groups and even passions into submission to work together for the good of the world. Many people have come together and they are communities sort of, but they will be deformed, because unless Jesus is the King, that community will never, ever, ever reach the goalthat each individualal member was created for. That goal is to worship God and that my friend is the goal of our community, to bring the world under the submission of the King, we are His ambassadors, and we don’t do it like others, who use war, politics and manipulation. Nope! We become martyrs, we do it in love, peace, nonviolence, and sacrifice, because that is how our King calls us to do it!
This post stirs up some things that I have been struggling with, so here goes:
*What does something like this LOOK like in the 21 century? On the one hand, some say we are to be “counter-cultural”, yet others say we cannot engage a culture that we are totally opposite of (I actually agree with the latter). Whatever the case, how do we go about acheiving this kind of thing?
*Do you think there are any cultural barriers that prevent the shared comunity that you spoke of earlier? How do we treat these things in light of the fact that we live in a very different world than the first Christians and the Anabaptists?
*Living life together is kind of a sore spot for me. How does one do this with people that you have nothing in common with? I know you stated that Christ is the commonality and I believe that, but how do we enjoy other things together if there is no other commonality? How do we reconcile our diversity? As you know, we fellowship with believers that live over 20 miles from our home (including you
). It is impossible to live the close shared community life that we see in Acts and that you speak of above. It would be very hard for us to meet, break bread, discuss the Scriptures, serve one another DAILY. How does one reconcile that?
*We live in a neighborhood where we are totally different from everyone else ( like they are literally an average of 60 years older than us lol), and we would probably be seen as somewhat “radical” and “cult-ish” to the little old couples who attend the Baptist church on one corner or the Presbyterian church on the other corner…so how do we engage them?
*Finally, do you know of any group of people who have overcome these things and are living this out in any way? If so, can you forward me their information so I can dialougue with them about this?
Vetta I will answer in the way you present the paragraphs.
1. I am asking the same questions. Maybe someone can help us.
2. I do, but I also believe those cultural barriers to man made barriers. I think many people have decided corporately to live in an actual community with one another. This takes a lot of thought and careful prayer, but something that has been and is being done. As a matter of fact, I have seen Sovereign Grace and many other church planting people do this. They are going to plant a church in a certain area and they all move to that area. Blueprint Church has done this very thing. We still have college students moving to Atlanta as we speak from Denton.
3. See number 2
4. They may not want to be engaged by you, so I believe this can’t be forced, it has to be agreed upon but once we enter that covenant together we are to puruse it wrecklessly.
Here is what I mean by the last statement. Lets get real practical if possible, say the Hopkins, Woods and Mercadel’s decide they are going to live in this type of community. So now they come together in prayer to decide where they all can live and we wrestle and toil and then we move there. We then look for jobs, that allow us to live in this type of community (which for the most part we all have currently, especially you and Charity and what Mel is going to be doing). We then say, we know this may get messy but we are going to agree to covenant with one another and see this through. We then turn outward in evangelism, relationships and serving the community in which we find ourselves and prayerfully the Lord adds to that number, as that number grows we make more decisions to include more people (if they want to covenant with us). I have a book where people are doing this if you like, there has also been many other groups who do this. The Amish do this also. But if you want a modern non-radical group, Blueprint and a lot of the Sovereign Grace churches are doing this all the time. Whats your thoughts?
Oh yeah…one more thing (and this question is for anybody):
*Is it hypocritical (maybe that’s not the best word to use) to go serve those who are “less fortunate” and then go back to your posh suburbananity??
I struggle with this as I love working with people in the inner city, and I live in one of the most well to do suburbs of DFW (we ain’t got no money though
) . To me it seems like I send the message, “Yeah, I love serving you guys, but I’m too good to live here.” Even though I was raised in the inner city and can identify with them totally, I’m not there anymore. Therefore, there is always (what I perceive to be) a stigma there: We come from the comforts of the suburbs to serve with them for a few hours then we go back to living “the good life.” We’re not living life with them. We can’t truly relate to their daily struggles.
I can hear someone saying, “Well, why not serve the people in your own community since you live among them?” And the problem there is: I don’t fit there either. They’re all very well off, if not rich and live very comfortable suburban lives and serve in their respective churches.
What’s a girl to do????
Excellent post, Bruh…
It seems, though, that the message of your thread has wide-spreading implications. For what many in Church History did when it came to making community and aiding others was to go live in the areas where there was poverty….and then, from there, find ways to PREACH to them, as people would have know that they were willing to at least TALK With them…and even more challenging, live among them so that they’d know what they’re talking about.
Sometimes, the way the Church operates even when making “communities” is very much akin to what’s known in human services as Gentrification—-where those with much come/make LARGE churches and bring all of their friends from the surburban side…..but distance themselves from those who were already there. What’s even crazier is that you’ll have 2o differing churches/communities all competing in the inner-city neighborhoods …trying to get the people on the streets to their respective sides while blasting the other/saying how they have “true community”…while others come from the Surburbs/seek to make the hood into the burbs. How damaging it is when upscale/rich individuals move into poor communities…and seek to change it to fit “their image of what’s good”…yet distance themselves from them rather than be apart of them…and the insights may be helpful to consider when wrestling with
the matter of perception vs. reality. For more info, “Fighting Gentrification With Money In Houston” is the place to go ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112888084). For in the New Testament, the word ‘fellowship’ is from the Greek word
“koinonia’, meaning communion, communication, distribution,
sharing, associating, partnering….and This is a Kingdom characteristic—especially as it relates to expansion/doing good to all ( Mark 4:29-31 / Galatians 6:10)…..but
it would be awesome if our communities lived in fellowship rather than talking of it
Vetta,
1. Whats your thoughts on my response?
2. I don’t know if it is wrong, I think that is a question we each have to answer. Some peoples choices to live in certain areas have a lot to do with other factors none which are sinful just choices. For example, some people buy homes as investments. They look at the long-term growth of the home values and resale opporutnities so they buy in that community. Others buy so that they can have property to hand down to their children, others buy because of proximity to jobs or certain schools they want their children associated with. Some buy for safety purposes. They feel threatened by some of the senseless violence that goes on and they decide to help but feel it may put their lives or the lives of their families at risk. None of those are sinful in themselves, just choices, much like the career we choose, the college we went to, and so forth.
But I will add that relationships are the long term goal. Many of us serve for the purpose of doing something, not really to love people. Real service may take long-term commitments to walk it out with people. That may lead you or me or others to relocate. Thoughts?
Woods,
So as it relates to the Hopkins, Woods, Mercadels scenerio: Man, I would so love this! I would put a “for sale” sign in my yard TODAY if I could. But practically speaking…this would be something that could only happen years down the line. The Mercadels and the Woods would not be able to get out of our homs right now, and I’m not sure where our spouses or the Hopkins stand at this point on this issue (which could take even more time for prayer/discussion if they are not in agreement).
As for the reason people buy homes: All of those reasons are PRECISELY why JMerc chose the neighborhood he chose for us to purchase a home. Having come from neighborhoods where extreme poverty, senseless violence, and safety issues reign, he was not about to move back into that if he didn’t have to. Now, me on the other hand, I came from a similar environment as my husband (mine would probably have been considered a step up), yet I feel like these are the people who most need us to reach them and live life with them. These were the people Jesus hung out with! So my challenge to Merc (and anybody for that matter) would be: So what about putting our lives and/or our belongings at risk! Isn’t that the implication of Luke 9:18-26????? Aren’t we supposed to lose our lives to gain them? Did not the apostles go to the forbidden places to spread the good news?!?! Should I not want to pass down a house to my kids that will allow them to continue the work that his/her parents have started?
Now I’ll be the first to admit how scary this would be for me to uproot my “comfortable self” and go back to gunshots, sirens, drugs, prostitutes, thugs, murder, and lawlessness. I haven’t lived like that in almost 10 years. But 1 John 4:18 is very clear on what to do with that fear. And Jesus is very clear about where we should store our treasures!
As you can “see” I get a tad bit worked up/excited about this kind issue in particular. It’s easy to chill in suburbia and put together little “days of service” and programs and what-nots. But what about putting our “treasures, our singleness, marriage, talents, and time…’cause they belong to us to show the world that Christ is divine.” <—-the quote is a line from Lecrae's song "Rebel"
Javetta,
Do you believe there are more sinners in the “hood” versus “Suburbia”?
Or in other words, why do you believe the “hood” needs our help more than “suburbia”, what are you basing it on?
Lionel-
Great discussion, I don’t have any answers, I’m still seeking to turn theory into practice. Since I thought church planters traveled to establish new works in other areas, I wanted to ask you to clarify what you are stating, are you saying you think different families should decide together to move to an area to plant a church and live in community? I was under the impression that we seek to gather in community with believers who already live in our general vicinity. I think this is what we see in Acts, The believers in a city would together and live in community, many believe, I included that they met in smaller groups weekly and had larger gatherings of the whole community from time to time. This is also what the Anabaptists did as well, they lived in small geographic communities and met in the meeting house weekly and lived life together daily, every so often they would meet with other like minded believers from the surrounding areas. I am not saying that people cannot do what you propose, nor am I saying that they should not if God clearly calls them to it. But I would suggest that it would not be normative as the biblical pattern seems to be to meet with people who are already in the area that you currently live in and as the group grows, you send out some to start a new work.
BTW: I love what you said about teaching and doctrine not being jettisoned, it is an imperative for us all to be studying the Word of God and teaching it in word and deed to one another.
Lionel-
Oh noooooooooooo! I don’t think there are more sinners in the hood vs. suburbia. I just think that suburbia has a lot more resources than the hood and a lot less need. I was speaking more along the lines of meeting the physical needs in order to have credibility to spread the gospel. From my experience, the gospel is all over suburbia…I mean there are 5 churches in my neighborhood alone!
Hutch-
What does one do when they live in an area like mine where people would consider you “cult-ish” and “radical” because their idea of Christianity doesn’t match what you best believe is the biblical pattern? How do you engage your immediate neighbors?
Vetta,
There are more churches in the hood that in the suburbs for sure. I drove down beltline and I saw 10 churches in two blocks, two of them are toucing and this is in Irving. So the same “gospel” that permeates the suburbs are in abundance in the hood
Now on to your other statement. I don’t think it is more helpful or any less helpful to relocate to meet physical needs. I know that is being taught, but there is no biblcal precedent for it. A lot of newer movements are trying to adopt this view but with little to no scriptural support. We are to meet the needs, for example the Philippians and the Corinthians did not relocate to Jerusalem they met the needs of Jerusalem. We don’t need to relocate to Congo, we do need to meet the needs of the Congonians though, we don’t need to relocate to Sudan, but we do need to meet the Sudanese needs, and much like the inner city, we don’t need to relocate to meet their needs, though it could help maybe. Often times even in that situation we want to change them to suburbanites, so we go to the hood and we want them to go to college and get good jobs like us, so they can no longer be a hood, which isn’t Gospel preaching it is suburbanizing (transplanting culture mixed with the Good News). We think our suburban lifestyles are better than theirs and want to change them to us. I have seen it way too often.
Hutch,
The difference is the “post-christian” culture we find ourselves in. We have been packaged an individualized Gospel and now we need community. Often times their Gospel was proclaimed with a sense of community. In other words, when they proclaimed the Gospel it was a plural Gospel not an individual sign a card type of Gospel. Community and Oneess was proclaimed in their good news (Acts 4). If we go to a community that has already been Christianized (not regenerated) it becomes much more difficult because all they have is “me and my bible” not a corporate hermenuetic.
Javetta-
I think weherever you are or wherever you move in the US you will be considered cultic if you truly attempt to live in community since our individualistic society has no concept of living in community. I have the doctrine, theory and the concept taking root in my heart, but I’ll be honest my flesh is scared to death. I don’t know how to do this, nor have I seen it properly played out. I am also terrified of commiting to a group that might go wacko, the Anabaptist had horrible troubles within their community over each ones legalistic leanings and interpretations of issues of conscience. I would never agree to live in that type of community of everyone did not agree up front to this:
Practicing Christian Commands
Since we are under the New Covenant, this means the Old Covenant Law (i.e. the Old Testament commands) are no longer binding but rather serve only as a guide to understanding those commands given to us by our new Lawgiver, Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The Christian follows all of God’s commands given to us in the New Testament. These commands are explicit and clearly defined. There are no exceptions to this practice unless they are explicitly laid out in Scripture.
Preserving Christian Freedoms
Serving Jesus Christ and His church requires not only that we practice His commands but that we preserve those freedoms He has given to us as well. Without this, the church becomes no different than the world, “following as doctrine the precepts of men” (Matt. 15:9).
Many of the freedoms that we in Christ enjoy have been erroneously debated through the centuries, even to the point of dividing churches, creating special movements or even shunning others.
The tendency for a person is to create a sense of self-righteousness based on certain external actions or lifestyle-choices performed or avoided. This breeds contempt of grace and develops into unhealthy-even condemning religious practice (e.g. “legalism”). Many such failures are due to the confusion between the Old and New Covenant and their binding nature upon the Christian. We as Christians are bound only to those commands given in the New Testament.
Christian freedoms are simply those areas of life, faith and practice which are not explicitly commanded, or given to us as a clear model from Scripture. It is those areas of the Christian life which God chooses to be silent on in order to produce the diversity necessary to the joy and beauty of the Body of Christ, the Church. These areas are of course, bound to and guided by the direct, clear and explicit commands and models given in the Scripture and never in violation. Should one of these areas—or others like it violate such a command, then it ceases to be a freedom and immediately becomes sin.
Although the following is far from exhaustive, I list these as examples of those areas of freedom given to us in Scripture. Believers are to agree to preserve the unity of the church and to not divide or part fellowship over these areas of Christian Liberty/Freedom.
1. Education
a) Public Schooling
b) Home Schooling
c) Private Schooling
2. Family / Marriage / Children
a) Family Size
b) Remaining Single
3. Women working outside the home
4. Entertainment / Leisure / Recreation
a) Television
b) Movies
c) Dancing
d) Cards (playing)
e) Music
f) Alcoholic Beverages (drinking alcohol to excess resulting in drunkenness in as sin)
5. Apparel / Dress / Appearance
a) Pants/Jeans/shorts (for women)
b) Facial hair/Length of hair (for men)
6. Finances
a) Spending
b) Debt/Credit
7. Diet – Scripture recognizes that there are now no unclean foods or dietary regulations binding on Christians.
I say if you do not have this type of understanding up front you are going to run into a disaster just like the Anabaptists who were continually disfellowshipping each other ad nauseum over issues of conscience.
Lionel-
I see what you are saying. Thanks for clarifying.
LIonel-
Just thinking out loud, of course we know tehre are many regenerate people in our Christianized society who like you and me were never taught how to live in community. So I get a kick out of teh term post-Christian, as I do not think America has ever bveen a predominanetly Christian nation, nor do I think any nation on teh face of thsi globe at anytime in teh past or in teh future will ever be a predominanetly Christian nation until the return of CHrist, we will always be a minority movement of aliens and strangers sojourning in a strange land.
Lionel-
Just thinking out loud, of course we know there are many regenerate people in our Christianized society who like you and me were never taught how to live in community. So I get a kick out of the term post-Christian, as I do not think America has ever been a predominantly Christian nation, nor do I think any nation on the face of this globe at anytime in the past or in the future will ever be a predominantly Christian nation, until the return of Christ, we will always be a minority movement of aliens and strangers sojourning in a strange land.
I’m on major pain meds. Grin.
Very well written and concise. I appreciate the form and manner in which you approached the topic. I wish you the best in the contest and hope you are a finalist!
Thanks James,
I enjoyed your post as well. Whatever the outcome of winning is, I think seeing these perspectives and praying about their impact on our lives will be the ultimate win.
Hutch,
christian does not = regenerated. We live in a society where “church” is on the decline and those who profess Christ is on the decline (that could be because we have more people from different nations also, which I think is a good thing). I think the problem is that the regenerate is so split and community means very little because of the personal experience theology taught by so many.
Yes, I know all of professing Christendom is not regenerate/ or in Christ. My point was that regenerate people within Christianized America like you and me (who once were apart of the IC) are moving toward a more biblical ecclessiology and other can and will as well. We do not need to head the the hills so to speak to form a local assembly that will live in community. You certainly can do that, but God can, does and is calling people out of the IC to learn to live in a more biblical community. It seems to be happening all across America. That was my not very well made point.
Got you. I agree and maybe disagree. I guess we can do the hard work of evangelizing “Christians” to move them that way, or we can begin something with the right foundation of those of like mindness. I think the first is very close to impossible and could be perceived as divisive, I believe the other seems to be the better antidote.
Woods-
Let’s get serious (about the churches in the hood)…Most of them are neck deep in slave church tradition and their members have not been taught properly. There is little to no change in the hood because I just don’t think the gospel has made it there as much as some would like to think. Now, I’m not saying that moving to the hood is THE answer. For example, Dave and Becky Black are working phenomenally in Ethiopia for Christ yet they live in Virginia. I was just thinking in terms of the way missionaries do their work. They go amongst the people, live like they live, immerse themselves in their culture, and spread the gospel. I know there’s no mandate in the bible to do this but it is a liberty (wink, wink @Hutch) that I think has produced some good fruit.
I believe that we can serve others without immersing ourselves in their neighborhood………but in light of the “shared” community spoken about in the post, I don’t see how living life together can be fully acheived without living in community. That’s my chief wrestling point right now. What does this shared community LOOK LIKE inside of the great commission????????????????????????????
Jesus says:
“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
I agree with Jesus. As they were transformed the Gospel began in Jerusalem (Acts 2-7) then moved to Samaria (Acts
then the outter most parts of the world (Acts 11- 13). You and I don’t need to be those who are doing the sharing, but we can be the teachers of this shared life. First by modeling it and inviting others in to see, then by helping others establish it.
Now as it relates to the Great Commission, the Apostles meet a world that has no idea of the Gospel/Church, we are in a world that is saturated with both. If you believe the best way to be a catalyst for the community I propose is to relocate, I say go for it. However, I don’t know if this is what happens scripturally, often times Paul goes to places for short periods of time proclaiming the Good News sharing with them what the shared life is supposed to look like and then being a true apostle/planter by leaving them to the Spirit and correcting them as necessary.
Again, I also believe that the suburbs is saturated with “suburban churchianity” much like the inner city is saturated with “slave church tradition”. Tall fences, autonomy, greed, workaholicism, the great American Pie, broken homes (they just get remarried, the inner city never gets married but both are failing miserably at marriage), sexual promiscuity, pornography and other things dominate the suburbs. The inner city sins are just criminal and loud, the suburban sins are noncriminal and silent; however, both lack the Gospel often times or the Gospel is cloudy at best.
The inner city and the suburbs are just as opposed to the Gospel and Community we present here. The inner city is usually unified on its pursuit for criminality while the suburbs are unified on its pursuit for the American Dream both will step on anyone to get it even if that means their families.
So I believe the inner city church and the suburban church both are lacking equally they just sit on opposite sides of the same fence.
Lionel-
I certainly tend to agree with you as when I speak with my brothers and sisters in Christ whom I used to attend IC with about moving towards community and biblical ecclesiology they look at me like I have two heads. I do not think it wise or even neccesary to evangelize the IC to move them to a more biblical practice, I think it happens naturally as God calls people out, like He did and is doing to us. I personally am staying put, sharing the gospel with people who I encounter and praying for and waiting on Christ to lead me to or lead to me people in my geographic area close enough to share life with who are exiting the IC. I really beleive and have faith that their will be a church expressing the body of Christ in community not only close by, but within my zip code 77449 sometime soon.
Vetta,
By the way, I don’t even know what to do in this situation. I do believe however that the suburbs needs just as much as the Gospel as the inner city, though the poor needs our physical help a bit more. I don’t even know how to puruse that community, but I see it and I am grabbed by it, as you know, there is a community in my community, how should I respond to them I am struggling pursuing community with them.
Hutch,
I am praying with you brother.
I live in an area that is middle to low-middle class with small pockets of upper class as well as lower/poverty level housing, it is very diverse. In fact my hard heart a number of years ago wanted to rent this home out and buy on “the right side of the tracks” S. of I10 (a much more affluent area) for “safety” reasons of course! Grin. But now that is not even a consideration, we are staying put, paying this modest house off so we can use more of the resources God has given to us to give to organizations we believe in and to be able to personally minister to people in need. I love the diversity of my street, 9 houses where those of the lighter melanin are the minority (3) homes, Hispanic (2) Indian(India)(2) Black (2) 1 of which is a black and white couple. One thing I have observed is that white folks, I know, I know it’s for lack of a better term, help me out here, we are by far the most insular of groups when we BBQ we do it in the backyard, when Hispanics or Latin’s BBQ they do it in their drive way so as to interact with the neighborhood. I am going to buy a new grill and start pulling it into the driveway on nice weekend evenings and cooking a bunch of hot dogs and burgers so I can engage my neighbors who are sitting out and walking around by setting up lawn/camping chairs and spending time eating and talking with them. I am ashamed at how little I know about my neighbors. It’s pathetic. I’m such a selfish pampered jerk.
BTW: If you look below the surface of most people who appear to be well off, most of them do not have any more money left over at the end of the month than the poor do, they are mostly just maintaining and making paymenst on more stuff! If they lost their jobs 99% of them would be in deep do-do within 2-3 months. People are people, they need Christ badly just like we do.
After 2 months I am in trouble after 3 we eating beans and drinking water brother.
I could only last a few months longer without, but I’m paying the stuff off! My point was that people are not as well off as people think they are or as they may seem to be.
I agree Hutch
Lioneezy-
You said, “You and I don’t need to be those who are doing the sharing, but we can be the teachers of this shared life. First by modeling it and inviting others in to see, then by helping others establish it.”
Who says we don’t need to be the ones sharing? And I totally agree with the “teach then send” model. However, how do you go about gaining the trust of the individuals you are trying to engage in this model with? Especially if they feel like they have no connection with you.
Let’s take Paul for instance, apostle to the Gentiles….I believe Paul made a connection with the Gentiles that garnered their trust in him and allowed him to share with them. While he didn’t live in any one place for long, he was accepted by them because of the connection. I believe that connection was made by living life with the people.
Once again, I am not saying that uprooting and moving is THE answer. I’m just fishing for thoughts on how to go about living life with people that you are not in close proximity with. I’ve done this as best I know how with you and Charity, but I’m sure we’d get a better picture of this if we lived in GP or if yall lived in FB. The closet I have come to the Acts version of shared community is the life we’ve built with Ryan and Melani…and I believe its been so successful because we live so close together.
I’m just fishing…
Vetta,
Let me know when you catch something.
This is one of your best posts, brother. I appreciate your thought on this important issue.
Thanks CJ! How is the family and school?