Subverting Mediocrity

Community Is The Context For Life & Mission.

The story begins with a man and a woman living in the garden experiencing relational harmony, intimacy, and safety with one another, God, and the created order (Genesis 2, especially 25). As God creates everything we see and everything we don’t see he declares it “good� (Genesis 1), culminating with his appraisal of the whole as “very good� (Genesis 1.31). There is only one thing that God says is not good—that man would be alone (Genesis 2.18).

What we find in the creation account is that embedded deep within what it means to be human is the need for community. This makes sense given the fact that humanity is created in the image of a God who has existed eternally in the community of a trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit. We cannot underestimate the vast importance of community for humanity.

As the story progresses we see the people of God formed into a nation that is intended to be a light among the nations, shining as an attractive beacon for God’s glory. It is hard to overestimate the particular importance of community in the Hebrew Scriptures.

As Jesus ushers the Kingdom of God into our world and inaugurates the Church (cosmic but particularly local), community is at the core of her identity. For sure the prominent metaphors for the church the people of God (1 Peter 2.10), the bride of Christ (Revelation 19.7), a family (1 Peter 4.17)) point to the church’s communal nature. Community is not only something the church does but actually describes who she is.

We find in the primitive church a model of communal practice whereby the individual members were tethered together by their corporate devotion to Jesus and his mission in our world (Acts 2.41-47). This passage forms the hallmark of community for which every community of faith needs to strive.

Community surely entails caring for one another, in fact these “one anotherâ€? passage provide an important clue as to faith’s communal nature (John 13.34-35, Romans 12.5, 16, 15.14, Galatians 6.2, Ephesians 4.2, 32, etc). But this caring for one another takes place in the context of shared mission and values. There is a symbiotic relationship between shared mission/values and our experience of community. A Jesus community has a goal with which it is striving, helping others (which includes us) experience the Kingdom of God.

What this means, then, is that every aspect of life and mission takes place in the context of community.

To say it differently, biblical life-giving community is missional at the core. As a community of Jesus followers we will strive to live and participate in mission in the context of community. Biblical community forms the ultimate apologetic to our world that Jesus is truly the Messiah (John 13.35). Not only that but life is meant to work as we live in community, it is truly not good for people to be alone.

So what do you think?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 7:00 am and is filed under Church, Church Planting, Community, LifeConnection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.