Community?

One constant I have seen in most churches in recent decades is an emphasis on small groups. With almost every push, there seems to be an attempt to rebrand as well. Despite what you call it, people see it for what it is, a Bible study. I seriously doubt that changes in name only really have much impact on attendance.

Granted, the church is meant to be a community of believers supporting one another; hence the emphasis Yet many are struggling to make it happen. Apparently, there is more to it than just throwing people together and expecting things to happen naturally. Yet, few are facing the obvious obstacles, and just keep doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results. So I think it's past time that we take a step back and consider the why. While I already did a post about group dynamic killers back in 2014. So let me offer the idea, that community has changed drastically since Biblical times. While people may be basically the same, our relationships with each other have not stayed the same. It shows in our damaged sense of community, and that damage trickles down to our spiritual well-being as individuals as well.

When The New Testament was written, it was still very much an agricultural society. As it had been for thousands of years and would remain so for over a thousand more. Back then a strong sense of community was necessary for survival. Then came the Industrial Revolution. While it brought more people together geographically as more moved into cities. However, the shift in culture and technology allowed people to be more self-sufficient, so the need for community was not as strong as it once was. As technology progressed into communications, face-to-face time decreased, and our community ties right along with it. While all these technologies may be convenient in bridging long distances, it also opens us up for widening emotional rifts between us. That is especially true with the recent technology of social media. In some ways, it helps us maintain connections, in others, it has divided us to an alarming degree. The disconnect we have over the internet makes people less inhibited with their tongues, so we have seen a significant decrease in our tact. (James 3:1-12) We will spend hours debating issues with someone a hundred miles away, but we may not even know the name of the people living across the street. As a college professor of mine once said, any form of communication that strips away nonverbal queues like body language, or inflection in voice is a perfect format for lying and deception. So it's no wonder social media has been deemed toxic in recent days. My point is, it's going to take more than putting people in the same room to create community. Relationships take time, there are no shortcuts around that. That is especially true for emotionally wounded people since they tend to be extra cautious about letting people close. While technology has made us more independent from a purely physical standpoint, that has not translated to the emotional and spiritual at all. So our resulting shortcomings in our communities have led to far more unmet spiritual and emotional needs.

Another shift we have seen with this change is our obsession with privacy. Most of the laws made concerning privacy have come about in the last 50 years. While I'm not saying privacy is Inherently a bad thing. But, how are believers supposed to hold each other accountable without some transparency? I'm sure our attitudes towards privacy have only created an illusion that things are better than they are, while in reality people are living lives of quiet desperation. Causing us to assume that we are the only ones struggling. If we would just strip off the whitewash and the judgmental attitudes we might actually be able to help and support one another as we work out our salvation. Instead of forcing everyone to go it alone.

Excuse me for pulling a politician by defining a problem but offering no finite solution. But, I honestly don't know what the answer is. When it comes to that interpersonal branch of intelligence I'm definitely on the low side. So those more gifted with relational communication need to recognize that it does not come as naturally to everyone as it does them. Once they accept that, they may realize they do have something very valuable and needed to offer the socially awkward members of the church community. That they can help without just judging and criticizing them. Believe me when I say that the aloof have endured that their whole lives, and it only poisons them to the idea of community. Regardless, I'm sure there is no quick fix. This all happened gradually over centuries, so it won't be undone overnight.

With that being said, all the leaders of the church need to be asking the question of community-level healing and stop pretending that there is no problem. I can't be the only person who sees this nor should I be the only one praying about it. So I challenge you to pray and meditate on this idea. The future of the church depends on it.

The Visual PARABLEist

The word "religion" comes from the two root words "re", meaning "again", and "ligios", meaning "connection."  "Religion" literally means to connect again what has been separated.