Community

Community is hard.

I was listening to one of my usual Mac news podcasts earlier this week, and they were talking about an event coming up in which Mac users from all over the country (and some from around the world) get together for learning, for inspiration and for community. That particular word kept coming up over and over again. They intentionally plan events during "the event" that help create community among these people who come from different places but have one thing in common: their love for the Mac.

And they will have 200-300 people show up for these events.

Then I put that witness up against my experience in the church, which ought to be the best practitioner of community in the world. My experience, though, is that "church" is one of the worst at doing what we should be a leader in.

Community is hard because community is messy.

True community requires a commitment for the long haul. It requires our determination to hang in there, no matter what. Even when you make me mad, I'm going to hang in there. Even when we are at odds, I'm going to do what Jesus said to do and talk to you about it (Matthew 18:15-20).

But that's not the way we live and act in contemporary American culture. We are a consumerist society, so if we don't like one "brand," we move on to another one. Then, we take that mindset into the church. This person made me mad, so I'm going somewhere else. The preacher isn't "feeding" me, so I'm moving on (you do realize it's only infants that need to "be fed"?). I don't like the color of the paint, the texture of the carpet, the location of the nursery or the emphasis on mission...and on and on the list might go. But community isn't meant to be about "me." It's about "us."

Yes, that person across the aisle from you or next to you at the table may not be like you. They might be "the other." They might have voted for someone for whom you have no respect. They might even be someone you do not respect. They might look different, sound different, act different and smell different than you do.

So what does Jesus call you to do? Find another body that is more to your liking? Angrily post a status online that calls "the other" out for all the ways they are wrong? Or does he call us to love them anyway? From what I understand of Jesus, he calls us to love and let him take care of the judgment. Yes, sometimes love involves speaking a hard word, a word of truth. It's not love to let someone drive their car off a cliff just because they want to. Love seeks to speak the truth; sometimes we have to tell them that doing "that" will hurt you, kill you. It's hard; community is messy. But what does love require? It requires we love one another, no matter what.

Does there come a time when loving one another means going separate ways? I believe that is possible. When Paul and Barnabas clashed over taking John Mark with them on their missionary journey, they separated and went different ways, each taking different companions. That actually led to the body of Christ growing rather than shrinking, but notice what they did not do. They did not talk bad about each other. You don't read Paul slamming Barnabas. They didn't post angry rants about the other online. They didn't tear each other down in public. They parted in love, and they remained part of the community together. Here, I believe, is the bottom line: they talked it through, to each other (not about each other) and they agreed on the best way for the kingdom to move forward. Maybe we could learn from their example in today's church.