Community
I had a lovely day today, hanging out at my son's school and engaging in some deep conversation with some of the other parents (who are also good friends). This is probably a no-brainer, but seeing friends frequently and really spending time together is such a core component to relational community.
I'm reading a book called "The Church Comes Home" by Robert & Julia Banks. Robert Banks is Professor of the Ministry of the Laity and Executive Director of the De Pree Leadership Center at Fuller Theological Seminary, has been involved in the church renewal and reform for over 25 years and is considered one of the key figures in the "house-church" movement.
A couple of paragraphs about community really struck me deeply today:
"God has called us to unity, to love our neighbor as ourselves. This requires a costly commitment to hang in there and work at issues unless it becomes obvious that there is no achievable solution. Unfortunately, when disagreements occur, we usually try to deny the conflict, exclude the offender from the group, or withdraw ourselves. All of these behaviors are detrimental to community. True community only develops as we learn to face the reality of our differences and work through them together."
"Other 'problems' arise from the varying perceptions people have of their role in the group more than from particular doctrinal or practical matters, with what goes on in their imaginations and feelings rather than what goes on in their thoughts. The chief hindrances to our becoming a genuine Christian community lie within us: in our basic attitudes, expectations, and motives. These are so intrinsic to our way of looking at others that we are often unaware of them. Yet they govern our relationships with each other, the way in which we seek to serve our fellow members, and our view of what our home church should become."
Banks goes on to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions, but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight - begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community, the better for both. A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse."
"Every Human dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial."
I'm reading a book called "The Church Comes Home" by Robert & Julia Banks. Robert Banks is Professor of the Ministry of the Laity and Executive Director of the De Pree Leadership Center at Fuller Theological Seminary, has been involved in the church renewal and reform for over 25 years and is considered one of the key figures in the "house-church" movement.
A couple of paragraphs about community really struck me deeply today:
"God has called us to unity, to love our neighbor as ourselves. This requires a costly commitment to hang in there and work at issues unless it becomes obvious that there is no achievable solution. Unfortunately, when disagreements occur, we usually try to deny the conflict, exclude the offender from the group, or withdraw ourselves. All of these behaviors are detrimental to community. True community only develops as we learn to face the reality of our differences and work through them together."
"Other 'problems' arise from the varying perceptions people have of their role in the group more than from particular doctrinal or practical matters, with what goes on in their imaginations and feelings rather than what goes on in their thoughts. The chief hindrances to our becoming a genuine Christian community lie within us: in our basic attitudes, expectations, and motives. These are so intrinsic to our way of looking at others that we are often unaware of them. Yet they govern our relationships with each other, the way in which we seek to serve our fellow members, and our view of what our home church should become."
Banks goes on to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions, but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight - begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community, the better for both. A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse."
"Every Human dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial."
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