Transformational Community
// October 15th, 2007 // Church Life, Sunday Recap
Community. Fellowship. Hanging out. Doing life together. Koinonia. Connection. They have long been considered to be optional, modular add-ons to church life. Upgrades that you could do after you got your Sunday school, finance committee, and pledge drive in place. We thought we could do church, and not be the church.
In a Christianized culture it has worked to some degree. People simply got their community itch scratched elsewhere at the YMCA, Weight Watchers meeting, or sports bar. Unbelievers became believers because they already spoke the same cultural language. All they needed was convincing; they already knew the stories, the claims of Jesus, and the lingo. Now we are entering into a different time. A time where the strength of our community is directly correlated to our effectiveness in transforming our cities. Even the Bible-belt is rapidly becoming post-Christian. Christian-ish values, morality and folkways are quickly being pulled down from their long-held position as king of the cultural hill. Churches are being forced to re-focus, re-arrange, re-plant and re-envision or die on the vine.
I think the essential missing ingredient is how we view the idea of community. Community is the primary mechanism Christ uses to move us down the road of sanctification. It’s how we become more like Him. Relationship. That thing we always thought was icing on the cake. Just some spice for the stew to make tough meat go down easier. Turns out, it IS the meat. Not only is it how Christ makes us more like Him, it’s how the gospel spreads. It’s the same process. The same mechanism at work.
Look at Acts 2:41-47 and you’ll see it. Not only was koinonia (Christ-centered fellowship) the context, it was the mechanism for their growth. Look back to the upper room and you will see that it was in this context of relationship that the Holy Spirit came, empowered them, and drew them out of hiding into the marketplace and missional living. Doesn’t Matthew say that “where 3 are gathered in my name, there I will be in the midst of them?” This is transformational community. Doing life together in such a way that we are transformed to be more like Christ, and our city is transformed in the same way. Not just being together in the same room, eating hot dogs and Pepsi and calling it fellowship because we are doing it in the Fellowship Hall.
We’ve been living a counterfeit version of community for a long time. We’ve had transparency without vulnerability. I’ll tell you my hopes, dreams and struggles but I’ll not give you permission to speak into it yourself. And there’s no way you will get to see the real stuff. The scary stuff. The stuff that REALLY matters. The real dreams. The real struggles. I’ll just let you see what I can handle you seeing. The relationship door will only swing one way.
Transparency without vulnerability makes us think we know each other. It makes us think we have authentic relationship. But really all we have is one facade relating to another.
I believe that the Church’s mission hinges on this very thing. The only way we are going to transform our culture, will be to do it from the inside out. By building a community that is the envy of the world and a crown at the feet of Jesus.
Don’t start with a big program. Don’t suddenly think you can add to your church budget and begin. Start personally and start in your home. I dare you. I dare you in the name of Jesus Christ. Do what I am going to suggest. Begin by opening your home for community… How many times in the past year have you risked having a drunk vomit on your carpeted floor? How in the world, then, can you talk about compassion and about community – about the church’s job in the inner city? ~Francis Schaeffer
[tags]transformational community, missional, fellowship, koinonia[/tags]