Why Community?

The popularity of the “anti-church” movement among younger evangelicals is sad. At one leve I can agree with and appreciate their criticisms and complaints against the church. Sometimes the church is riddled with inauthenticity, with a concern primarily for institutionalism and denominationalism and not with the gospel and with the poor. Love lacks in some quaters and doctrine in others. The trend, however, to distance oneself from the church and “go-it-alone” is not a trend I can commend.

God established community as a neccesisity for humanity, and Jesus and his Apostles emphasized it’s role in the life of Christians. Church is not optional, like icing on the cake for the believer (you can take it or leave it). In fact the Bible says that we desperately need community for the sake of our sanctification (growth in Christ-likeness). Hebrews 11:24-25 states: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

That verse says that meeting together is one of the means by which we grow in Christian faith and practice. As communities of beleivers gather together they hold one another accountable, encourage one another in good works, love, and faith, and motivate one another to action! It’s a mutual building up that occurs when I gather with Christian brothers and sisters. This is a major part of how the church is to function.

The church is not a social club functioning under the guise of a religious meeting! Worse still it’s not a religious meeting! The church is a “body” (as Paul calls it), a living organism, where it’s “members” work together for the health of the whole thing. Where one member depends upon another for its health, growth, and development. There are no lone ranger Christians!

Our God is a relational God. By virtue of His very existence as a Trinity, three persons in one-God, He must be relational. Furthermore, God created Adam and said it was not “good for man to be ALONE.” Add to this the reality that God has entered into human existence to relate to us as the God-man, Jesus. God created and values community and He gives it to us because we need it! Being rooted in a biblical community, then, while not the end-all of the church (see previous post), is of great importance for Christians!