Community on purpose

One of the first things we have to recognize and work on when it comes to community is that it never happens by accident. Put all the devout, godly people you know in a room, and although they will be genuinely great people with a genuine desire for God, a close-knit community won't magically appear. Perhaps that's because often when we are part of a group, our goal within the group is implicitly to not cause strife, to refrain from hurting feelings, to avoid getting on anyone's nerves. But with all due respect, that's not good enough. Avoidance of harm does not communicate love. Coming to your aid when harm has come your way does.

Community is never, cannot ever be passive. We can't think that by inserting our body into a church building and pasting on a false smile does anybody any good. Not being rude to the people we come into contact with isn't enough. We've been called to build them up. We've got to step up to build community. It's not enough to avoid gossip, we've got to slay gossip and confront gossipers. We've got to have ZERO tolerance for people who come to us complaining about a third party if they haven't brought this the other person's attention first. We've got to actively squelch griping and whining, as if our motives weren't selfish in the first place. Community will never grow until we realize that we haven't done our job by being harmless...we won't be accomplishing our purpose until we are helpful. Until we are the Barnabas of our time. Until we are builders instead of avoiders.

...but those are all nice words, good thoughts until I try to apply them to my life. Then things get sticky and I get cranky. I WANT to be intentional. I want to be the most loving, caring, transparent person in town. I psyche myself up and then...I get scared, I back off. How do I intentionally build a relationship with the man in my church who didn't want me to be appointed as the minister, who my teaching/preaching never connects with, who thinks teaching ecclesiology is actually wrong and improper because that word isn't found in scripture? How do I connect with the older lady to whom church is a place of comfort and stability, a link to her past and her deceased husband, and to whom my style of faith presents a destabilizing force and is something of a threat? How can I be present in the life of the sad-faced woman who sneaks into every worship just as it gets underway, and flees before the final Amen...come to find out that her former husband used to have my current job (decades ago), but left her and ran off with the church secretary, and she's so beat up and scarred by members of the church that she wraps herself in a veil of silence to protect herself? How do I impact the church leader who has the authority and influence to fire me at a whim...yet needs to be lovingly corrected? How do I do that? I know people that could succeed in those situations...but I don't feel like that person...and yet this effort...this brief wisp of fresh air has to start with me. I have to do it on purpose and forget my insecurities and reach out and touch them and do it for their sake and for the sake of Christ. I've got to love them enough that I can't let them wander through the builidng unnconnected, untouched, unloved. Lord, help me to be who I need to be...help me to love...on purpose.