Community

We all live in community. In fact we live in multiple communities. Our communities are formed from our church, family, school, work, hobbies, friends, etc. We move from community to community as we live out our week. Which one of these communities is primary in our lives? Which one should be? At times we engage in double talk. First we say that the church should be the primary community. Then we tell people that family should be. And don’t forget to make and maintain friendships and to build good relationships at work. So where do we stand? Where should we stand? There are scholars and theologians that could be found to defend and promote anyone of these communities. But perhaps figuring out what is our primary community is not that important.

Perhaps we need a different view of community and specifically of our church community. Why does our church exist? The church exists to glorify God by extending the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is not solely extended by increasing our church programs or by making sure that our organization is growing or even by making sure that everyone is so involved in church activities that they do not have time to do anything else. It is extended by us bringing Jesus into our communities. These communities are made up from our families, work, sports, friends, etc. So since the church exists to extend the Kingdom of Jesus and the Kingdom is extended in other communities the church therefore exists to bless these other communities.

This means that the church needs to equip people to live in their different communities and not to just live in the church community. The church needs to be giving and blessing the communities instead of taking away from them. The church needs to help people to be better people in their communities not just better people in the church.

Really it is a call for the church die for the world…just like Jesus died for the world.