Community

The Anabaptists were right when they said that we cannot be Christians by ourselves. We need our brothers and sisters to help us along the way. That means to be Christian we need to be part of a community of faith. Community is not an added attraction or something optional, but an essential part of God's will for all God's people.

The images of community and peoplehood run throughout the Bible.

God created us for conversation and dialogue and from the beginning has been calling out for a people. God said to the Israelites, "If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples ... and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:5-6). The New Testament talks of the new covenant, the koinonia, the body of Christ. The images are of community.

There is little room for the modern heresy of individualism.

We need our brothers and sisters. All of us are weak and need the support and encouragement of others. Seldom do we have the courage to stand alone, but we can stand up and be counted if we know our brothers and sisters are standing with us. To resist all the pressures to conform to the sick world around us, we need support. We need our brothers and sisters for sharing because we cannot hold within ourselves all of our joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, faith and doubts. The closer we are drawn to God, the closer we come to others in the faith, just as the more we love each other the closer we are drawn to God. The more we love each other the more we want to share. Even our possessions cannot be considered our own any longer.

We need our brothers and sisters to help us discern God's will for our lives. It often is not clear what we should do, what is right or wrong. The early Brethren and Anabaptists did not reject all creeds and say each person should decide for himself or herself what is right and wrong. They believed in one creed, the New Testament, and said that we cannot interpret it for ourselves. It is the community that together interprets the Word and discerns right from wrong as it is led by the living Christ. Before making any important decisions in our lives we need to consult with the brothers and sisters and with them test the spirits. Our community is to have more influence on our lives than all the rest of society combined.

Correcting One Another in Love
We need our brothers and sisters to correct us when we are wrong. If we love each other we will pick each other up when we fall. Ignoring people with problems or struggles and telling them to fend for themselves as best they can is hardly an act of love. The more we love each other, the more we will help each other. In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus tells us to go directly to the other person whenever there is a problem. No gossip. If there is reconciliation or repentance, rejoice. If not, take several others and try again. If there is still no response, bring it to the whole community. This is the central text for relationships in any church or community. There can be no healthy community that does not practice it. Jesus understood us well when he said we must first straighten out things with our brothers and sisters before we come to the altar. We cannot pray with people if we are not in right relation to them. There can be no community without the "rule of Christ" (Matthew 18).

Actually, community is humanly impossible. There is no way we can build community. The harder we try, the more impossible it becomes. The focus of our lives may never be community, for community can exist only as the outgrowth of something much deeper. Community is never the goal, but the result of a deeper decision to live in Christ's kingdom. Community exists only as God's gift to us. We cannot create it. The question is whether we are willing to let go of all our pride, egoism, and loyalty to the false gods and receive what God wants to give to us. Once we were no people, but now we can be God's people (1 Peter 2:10).

Membership in a Christian community is a serious matter for each person and the whole community, for it is a covenant similar to marriage and just as serious. The meaning of membership and its expectations need to be made known to all. Any community that accepts members without a deep commitment or clear understanding of what this involves is headed for trouble. Usually it will mean the gradual erosion of the love, mutual commitment, and witness of the community, if not the creation of discord and division.

In Christian community there can be no place for coercion. Coercion is part of the old life we have renounced. Each person is a member because of a deep desire to follow Jesus and live the life he calls us to, and not because of any pressure to join. Yet for there to be no manipulation of others or power struggles, it is important that all self-interest and egoism be surrendered by all in favor of the leading of the Holy Spirit. A community can be free only to the extent it is being guided by the Holy Spirit.

The true church is a moral force independent of the world that represents in the midst of the world the demands of God upon the whole world. To the extent that any community is faithful to the gospel of Christ, it will live in contrast to the old society around it. Often it will be persecuted and despised by the world. Bearing the cross is to be expected by the church.

Community is not an idealistic dream, but what God is calling all of God's people to. The true church is not invisible, but a visible community that can be seen and experienced, that lives faithfully to what God has called us. It is not some ephemeral feeling, but a group of people deeply committed both to Christ and to each other, who together are concretely living out the implications of the gospel and their love for each other. It is essential that the church be visible, for this is God's primary way of making God's will known. Unless the message we preach is being visibly lived out in our Christian fellowships, it will be empty and have no power. The quality of life in our fellowships is of crucial importance.

God's primary way of accomplishing God's purposes in history is not through governments and bureaucracies, but by gathering together a people who will embody and demonstrate God's will for all humanity. In the midst of the old that is passing away, God creates new communities that are the first fruits of the new order that is coming. In the midst of decay and darkness they are salt and light. The main locus of God's action in the world is Christian communities, the church.

Art Gish was a contributing editor to the Post American, the predecessor of Sojourners, and was completing an extensive work on Christian community when this article appeared.