Thankfully large numbers of Christians are coming to understand that individualistic lifestyles are sub-Christian at best. In some cases they are anti-Christian, at least when they become utterly self-centered. The emerging generation, and the postmodern social and cultural context, have both reminded us that we need people, people in community and people in families. This is more than a new mantra. It is fundamental to our identity as creatures made in the image of the triune God, a God who enjoys community within himself as a trinity of persons. Further, God made the solitary to live in the family and he created the family to be the original community designed for life together. And he made Israel and the Church to be living communities. 

What is hard for so many who are pursuing participation in community with new joy is to understand is that they cannot control community. You can’t even make it happen or create it, all tendencies my generation thinks it can manage. No, you can’t control community but you can nurture it. Find it and enter into it. Accept it as a gift, a blessing from a gracious God. Become an active living part of community life and then contribute to the well-being of it when you find it. That is your part.

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Comments

  1. Kevin August 6, 2007 at 10:46 pm

    This is a very interesting topic. I have had people that have wanted to enter into a Christian community of which I am a steward. But they wanted to enter into it on their terms, most of which were to extract some benefits while quielty seeking un-christian activities. Another wanted Christian community without any demands what so ever. Basically he wanted to not work, sleep in late and spend most of the day listening to heavy metal and working out and getting mad at his roomates. What does it mean to not control community when many want to use and abuse community?

  2. John H. Armstrong August 7, 2007 at 3:50 pm

    Great question Kevin. It would seen that community is being abused by this individual. This behavior nurtures no one positively and thus a real community will hold such a person to accountability in the best sense of the word, not to control. He is a slave to his own sin and real community can help him get out by the Spirit. We do not nurture community by allowing sinful responses to direct it. This is pandering to people and lifts no one toward God. By control I am referring to human control that seeks to make community happen in manipulative and managerial ways. What we can do is put in place biblical formation and allow the Spirit to work and empower the community.

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