“Communities are collections of families and friends who
find major meaning in extending the family association to a band of honorary
brothers and sisters. They are complex relationships of commonality and
obligation that generalize to others beyond the perimeter of the homestead.” -John Gatto
Communities are networks of
relationships, which often arise spontaneously through mutual need, but more
often are developed through the ties of mutual kindnesses and shared joys and
trials. Communities may exist on many different levels, such as a running club,
where members meet once a week and (big surprise) run!). But ultimately and
more importantly, they develop much closer relationships over time through the
shared experience of running, training, racing, dieting, and just talking over
their lives together. People are meant to live in this kind of community.
Some communities exist on an even
deeper level. The church community is intended not only for meeting once a week
for worship and fellowship. Instead, members of a church community gather
together to counsel one another, to pray for one another, to encourage one
another, and to grow closer together as they seek to grow closer to God. And
while there are typically only a few organized church events (Sunday morning
worship, Wednesday night service or prayer night, and perhaps organized small
groups), the best parts of the Christian community are the acts of spontaneous
generosity and hospitality: people sharing in meals and serving one anothers
needs. Much like a family, a church community chooses to share one anothers
interests, passions, joys, and burdens. Whether its plowing one anothers
driveways, or baking delicious apple pies, Christians find joy in giving to
others. Larger groups can also gather together, and something as simple as
cutting down Christmas trees, or wrapping shoeboxes for Operation Christmas
Child can become community events.
This is how I believe a Christian
community should operate; unfortunately it doesnt always exist this way. Too
often churches only have the pretext of being a community: they gather together
and sing the praises of a God of love and goodness, but then turn a blind eye
to the needs of their brothers and sisters. Large communities I think are
especially prone to this effect, because of two basic human principles: the
by-stander effect and the professionalization of the ministry. I think the by-stander
effect is pretty self-explanatory: it means that the more people there are
standing around, the more we tend to assume that someone else will take care
of it. Ironically, Ive found that bigger churches struggle more then smaller
churches to find people willing to volunteer to serve.
By the professionalization of the
ministry I mean that when we see pastors who have seminary degrees, we assume
that we cannot also be qualified to preach or teach others. And when youth
pastors also have degrees, we think we cannot also serve and minister and make
a difference in the lives of our youth. Even worship leaders these days often
come with formal training in how to lead congregations in the worship of the
Lord. And if someone else is being paid to do it, then the rest of the
congregation assumes that its no longer their job to bring a joyful,
worshipping attitude to Sunday morning service. The same is true for all the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, although to a much lesser extent. We think that a
certain family has the gift of hospitality, and therefore thats the only way
that they need to serve others. Those with bigger incomes must be gifted in
generosity, and those who are teachers are naturally gifted at being Sunday
school teachers as well. This is an assumption that I think hinders the full
development of a community. It is natural to some extent to specialize in one
area of ministry, but not to exclusion of all others. I think we should all
want to love others in any and every way that we are capable of doing.
(EDUCATION SIDE-NOTE) Being a
teacher, Ive seen this same process of the by-stander effect and professionalization
happen in education as well. It seems that the more professional our teachers
become, the more we have relied on the expert teachers to do all the
educating. It seems like the buck just keeps getting passed around and our
children are falling through the gaps. Parents hardly even have a role in
educating their children anymore because they are so often discouraged from
teaching at home. And schools simply cannot offer the type of community that a
child needs to truly thrive in this world. School communities, especially once
students enter the middle and high school, are extremely de-personalized and
artificial. The first and major reason why children act so childish for so long
is that they are only ever surrounded by children their own age. They have few
adults to look up to and learn fromOkay, Im stopping my rant on that subject,
and Ill save it for some other time
In the end I think that churches
that are small, but close-knit, have the greatest chance of surviving in the
long-term. The small church allows for more connections between multiple
different generations, and creates a sense of identity and belonging that might
not be possible in the mega-churches.
While it isnt true for all large
churches, I know that from my personal experience, its relatively easy to slip
in and out of such churches and not ever be personally greeted or welcomed by
anyone. Im not going to start preaching against mega-churches or anything, I
just think that the structure of large churches does not lend itself to
close-knit communities, which I am undoubtedly in favor of. Even large churches
will recognize that the real ministry happens in the small groups, not in the
Sunday morning worship service. One could argue that larger churches can
accomplish more because of the pooled resources, but by looking at the example
of Jesus, I think our God has always preferred to work through personal relationships
and using the little and weak things of the world to overcome the strong.
