What Is Christian Community?

For some time now I’ve been struggling with this question. It seems like for all of my young adult life, I’ve been searching for true Christian community. I’m not sure I even knew what I was searching for or what the words “Christian community” meant, but recently I’ve discovered that’s what I’ve been longing for.

I can recount so many different conversations I’ve had with other young adults who are longing for the same thing. A place where we can be real, authentic, honest about our past, and share our fears and hopes for the future. A place where we can embrace our brokenness as humanness and accept one another in the midst of it all. A place where imperfection is received with open arms and people stand ready to remind us that we are all imperfect people. Somewhere we can laugh together, cry together, sing together, shout together. Then again – isn’t that what we all long for?

Each summer I get a glimpse of what true Christian community might look at when I staff a youth event called AFFIRM. Growing up, I was a participant at AFFIRM throughout my high school years. It has changed many lives, including my own. I knew it affected my view of the church, but I wasn’t quite sure why or how until I became an adult staff member. AFFIRM is a perfect example of what true Christian community might look like.

Read that carefully … it’s not PERFECT community. People mess up – we get angry, tired, stressed out, homesick, sick, we argue, disagree, gossip, and fight – but it’s a safe place to work things out. We’re surrounded by people who open up and share their own brokenness and we realize that it’s okay to talk about our own brokenness. We are accepted and loved as beautiful children of God – even when we do screw up. The AFFIRM community loves each other – even when it hurts. There are times when we do things we don’t particularly want to do because it’s in the best interest of the person we’re loving – but we talk about it, we love them through it, and we promise to always walk beside them.

I am so thankful for my own AFFIRM experiences. It is because of that event that I understand what Christian community can look like. I strive to make it more than just one week every year – I try to use the things I learn there and take them home with me. And I am ever hopeful that the youth that participate have the same experience that I have had. I hope they see – whether it be now or 10 years from now – that AFFIRM was a place where they experienced what it means to live in Christian community with one another. I hope they take what they learn each year and make it more than just one fun week each summer.

Where have you experienced Christian community?

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Jon

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I’ve come to the conclusion that my generation NEEDS to reinvent “Christian community.” I’m sitting here in church – and there’s a disconnect. I don’t fit here, and I’d venture to say many young people feel the same way. “Youth Group” is an attempt – but it’s an attempt by adults who perhaps don’t understand how to connect us. Not connect TO us, but connect us young folk to each other. Anyone can talk to an older, wiser person. That’s the easy part of this. Authentic peer to peer is the hard part. How do we do it? That’s what we need to discover for ourselves.
http://www.soulmunchies.com Crystal

I think it's been too common for us to experience better community outside the church than we have within it. Too often we are not truly committed to one another in the church – we are committed to our certain ways or our certain beliefs and we forget that what we are called to is faithful relationships with one another – no matter what our beliefs or traditions are.

I too am more interested in finding communities closer to home. Retreat communities are good for helping us discover what community can look like, but they aren't longstanding communities that can help us through the day-to-day things we face. Often, retreats are such a safe place because there's not a lot of time for people to have to deal with the “crap” that comes from commitment to one another! Relationships outside the retreat setting are hard work, but the community that comes from that commitment is oh-so-worth it!
http://www.soulmunchies.com Crystal

Thanks so much for that link Chris – I will definitely check it out! What a powerful image of “community” – to truly give up everything for one another. You are so right, it is exactly what we are called to do as disciples of Christ, and yet we are so hesitant to do so. I would love to explore this topic more!
http://goodwordediting.com goodwordediting

As a public school teacher, a big part of my job was establishing a sense of community within each class. I taught writing, so you can imagine that the students really needed a safe place to work things out.

At Laity Lodge, we often talk about retreats as a safe place for people. A weekend at a retreat center is inherently safe, but I'm more interested in finding communities closer to home. That's a big part of what we aim for in the high calling network. For me, a sense of safety comes with commitment. When Christians commit to support each other for the long haul, then we don't have to worry about mistakes and fumbles. We know the community is committed to us.
Chris

When I lived in Atlanta, I regularly volunteered at a nationally known intentional Christian community in Atlanta: The Open Door Community. More than thirty committed and passionate believers live out their faith “intentionally: … choosing to live together in a large house on Ponce near downtown. Most have left lives on the “outside,” sometimes lives of affluence, to live only on the donations of food, clothing and life essentials given to Open Door and only AFTER these items are shared and distributed with the homeless of the streets of Atlanta.

They also serve breakfasts and soup-kitchen lunches, provide showers and changes of clothes, staff a free medical clinic, conduct worship services and meetings for the clarification of thought, and provide a prison ministry, including monthly trips for families to visit loved ones at the Hardwick Prisons in central Georgia. The people of open door also advocate on behalf of the oppressed, homeless and prisoners through non-violent protests, grassroots organizing and the publication of our monthly newspaper, called Hospitality.

It is an AMAZING site to see and be a part of a community “radically” living out their faith in this way. Funny that this “radical” lifestyle is actually the lifestyle that we as disciples of Christ were told to live. Most times we don't … sometimes we do … at ALL times we should.

I'm glad to hear you talk about Christian community Crystal, I hope we can continue to spread a word that folks we begin to hear – Christ's love was not meant to be given to us for us to keep, but given to us so that we can share it, be a conduit for God's hope, love, compassion.

Check out the website and take time to volunteer at the soup kitchen, get your church families to donate personal items and clothes items for Open Door to distribute. I hope to talk soon about this idea of community and how we can make it more than just a couple weeks during the summer each year. It feels too good (for the ENTIRE body of Christ) for just that.

http://opendoorcommunity.org/