The Simple Pastor

By Phil Whittall, church planter, blogger & book reviewer

• What about community?

  November 19, 2008 | 410 Views | 3 Comments

  Community. It’s in the name of the church I lead, we aspire to be a community church. It’s one of our values, we want to build a genuine community of believers that has influence and impact on the wider geographical community. But what is a community and why do we want one so much?

  Perhaps more importantly, why is there a sense that community is often missing from modern life? Plenty of observers have noted how increasingly mobile people have become as education, work and relationships pushes and pulls them around the country. Less people live in the town where they grew up than ever before and people are constantly moving. Add that to the fact that people are often eager to improve the quality of their dwelling that increases our mobility. Each year a few doors from where you live a stranger will move in, if you don’t say hello sooner or later you’ll know no-one who lives near you.

  Add that to an increasing mobility in the workplace and the almost total erosion of job security that means many people work in a place they care nothing about with people they care nothing about and you’re adding a potent ingredient into a recipe of isolation.

  Lastly, there is the ascendancy of the TV. We are now fully entertained in the comfort of our own homes. When we come home tired from work we care little about and we don’t know our neighbours or care for our colleagues what incentive is there to leave the safety and security that is your new sofa? And while you’re being amused to death with mindless soaps and informed about places you’ll never see, you’re also being scared and frightened about ‘them’. The world is full of evil people – child abusers, kidnappers, identity thieves, drunken louts on the weekend and gangs of teenagers for the weekdays – added to your drug addicts, dealers, and usual mix of car thieves and burglars. The world is also full of unseen dangers – germs on everything, diseases to be scared of and as we’re no longer in contact with our spiritual sides – what is more frightening than death? So insure it, sterilise it, protect it and stay away from everyone else. Don’t let your children play outside.

  But the problem goes deeper than statistics and demographics it goes to the heart. We’ve bought into a dream that has ‘me’ as the hero. I’m the centre of the story and everyone else is an ‘extra’, if the hero isn’t happy – he can change the sidekick, dump the gang, find a new country, move to a new town, buy a new look and get some new gadgets. Everything is up for grabs as long as the hero is happy. Hmm. No place for loyalty, faithfulness, integrity, contentment, commitment in this story.

  Consumerism has a lover called individualism and together they spin a web of lies that pulls us away not towards other people. Community is part of the antidote of kingdom. As we become part of a kingdom that seeks to bring reconciliation to the WHOLE world, we are pulled towards people, called to meet them, get to know them, love them, fight with them and make up again with them. Called to spend time with them and share our lives with them. As we do that we open ourselves up to correction, encouragement, generosity, compassion and true friendship. We can live differently and live deeply.

  Community is without question the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do – building a church is easier, getting my quiet times in order is easier, breaking stubborn habits is nothing but building genuine community has been genuinely difficult. This makes me think it’s spiritual warfare but also that it means the treasure that comes when you get glimpses of it – as unexpected gifts are given, when people pull round to offer unconditional and extravagant love is beyond comparison. The kingdom is not a collection of individuals but a community of people. Be a part of it.

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• Blue, with a hint of amber

  It annoys me wqhen some christians want community but only if the people look like them, sound like them, have the same hobbies as them, the same humour as them, the same values as them.

  I want community to cross ages, cross demographics, cross educational backgrounds etc. That is real community.

  On a sunday a couple of weeks ago I spoke to a former head of a local football hooligan firm, and then the child of a former african president. They are in my community.

  What I have also found is that in some cases there is more “community” amongst my friends who support Shrewsbury Town than there are between Christians. People lending stuff, offering advice, giving lifts, helping out. All you need is a blue and amber shirt and people will do almost anything to help.

• frankerooney

  Your posts don’t usually bring tears to my eyes but the last paragraph of this one did.

  I grew up in a church which lived “in community”. We shared our houses, meals and holidays, and sometimes our cars or childcare. We had a dance group, a drama group and we celebrated together a lot. We spent a lot of time in each others’ houses. And non-believers were attracted to the church and to Jesus because they saw the love and the fun we shared.

  I’ve been puzzling about the friendship issue recently. I had decided that I find it so difficult to have friends either because (a) I generally don’t understand how friendships work, or (b) I smell bad. But now you’ve got me thinking. Maybe I need to make a bit more of an effort because being a healthy church community is right and good and God-honouring and the Enemy is going to try his best to discourage it.

  Better rule out the bad smell theory first though.

• Phil

  Please DO make the effort, we’ll benefit and hopefully you will too.