Something that I have reflected on lately is the need for community in our walk with God. Last night at The Discovery Class, Dave Cover talked about how they feel as a church that Christians really cannot maintain a serious walk with Christ apart from being involved with a community of believers. I have to say that I agree with that. I mean, if you are not involved with a community of Christians then it would be rather difficult to maintain accountability and to feel pushed to grow with God.
I personally do not want to look at the big community section of verses from Acts 2, but it does show what community did for the first century church. What if contemporary American Christianity taught that? Why does American culture effect the way Christians go to church in America?
American Christianity gets effected by the way we as Americans are self-centered, independent, etc. Does that reflect the Biblical call of the Christian walk? For me, I believe that it does not show the Bible in what we do. I know for me, that I can walk into a room at church or even the Chi Alpha House and not even talk to everybody (or anybody) there. But, when Satan decides he wants to mess with me, that is when I want to talk with somebody. Why is it when things seem down, that is when we want help from other people? Shouldn’t we be seeking the counsel of mature Christians in our walk with God even during the good parts in life?
What if Christian Americans stopped thinking they can live their life by themselves? What if we as the part of The Church here in the US started living like we actually care about each other’s walks with God? Now, I am in no way digging on anyone church or person, more on a group of people (the group of people that is all about the individual faith and not about the community aspect of Christianity). At times, I feel like I can walk around in my Christian faith without other people there to push me or hold me accountable to things, but that is just a mere lie.
If every Christian in the US started living similar to an Acts 2 community, things would change. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying we should all move in together, but I am saying what if we cared enough about each other that we paused a little bit longer while outside on the sidewalk to actually see how people were, and not simply just wave, that could impact our lives.
If we all started living out a caring and concerned community with all Christians, what would happen to those close friendships of ours? Henry recently talked about this in a recent blog post and it is a respectable hurdle that we as Christians have to examine. I mean, if we allow our respective brothers or sisters in Christ to hold us accountable and to push us, what about when we share all of our “crap” with people. For me, it is rather hard to share everything that is going on in my life when even some of my closer friends ask. However, if Scott asks me, I am more than willing (most of the time) to share what is going on. Is this potential lose of closeness with a select group of people hindering my potential relationship with a new friend?
The more and more I think about this subject, the more I am reminded of Christ. During His earthly ministry, he had at times more than 5,000 people following Him. Was He everybody’s best friends? To the best of my knowledge, no, He was not. Within that large group of people He had his 12 disciples. But with examining the stacking doll effect of Christ’s ministry, He had three people that were closer than the other nine disciples were. Those three (Peter, James, and John) were with Jesus during the Transfiguration.
Does having friends that are close enough that we feel safe with sharing the “crap” of our lives with go against the Biblical account of community? I do not think so, actually I do not know any verse from the Bible that teaches against the idea. Yes, having close friendships with people will most like hinder the growth of community. However, it is a challenge that I am willing to face. I want to become comfortable enough to talk with people that influence my life to some degree or another, about what I think in regard to politics, music, movies, etc. and on the flip side get into theological conversations with them.
I may not have community figured out with a five step cure all, but I feel like community is one of the most important points in a Christians life, and the American attitude of individual faith and individual problems are crap and should not be allowed to fester in a Christians life. I am not saying people should go out and tell everybody their struggles, but we as Christians should feel comfortable with people around us to at least engage in conversation over topics other than just the weather.
What are your thoughts? How else should we as Christians get away from American Christianity and grow in Biblical Christianity?
