The following is a paper I submitted for my "Theology of Christian Community and Ministry of the Church" class at Fuller Theological Seminary.
There are just some songs that need to be turned up really loud, especially if you’re driving by yourself on the freeway. For me, John Mayer’s Why Georgia is one of those songs. And it was on a recent blasting that a line caught my attention. It wasn’t that I had never heard or understood the lyrics before; in fact, it was this particular line which I felt resonated especially deep within me: “Everybody is just a stranger, but that’s the danger in going my own way; that’s just the price I have to pay.” Hearing and singing this line always made me grin, because I felt empowered to do my own thing, to follow my own dreams, and to even be proud that there would be times I would find myself utterly alone. But on this particular listening, I wasn’t so sure I wanted everyone to be a stranger. I was beginning to realize that in living such a lifestyle I would be missing a key to my Christian faith: community.
Here lies a conflict of the modern and postmodern worldviews and their implicit impact on Christianity. In brief, modernity holds up the autonomous, individualistic self while post modernity embraces community. Being raised in modernity and educated in post modernity is giving me a unique opportunity to re-examine my values and assumptions, especially those regarding Christian community. So I am working to establish my theology of Christian community; one that is grounded in the Triune God, centered on Jesus Christ, and drawn from the New Testament church. A guided exploration of Scripture will help develop such a theology, to be later presented in the context of an experimental Christian community.
Christian community and the Church
First of all, in our day Christian community is not the same as the Church. Christian community is an intentional gathering of believers for a committed and common purpose. There is an acceptance and transparency among the members, who are all rallied around a common goal. Community is organic; it moves and grows, empowers and supports. The Church is where the Word is proclaimed and the sacraments are administered. There are times when the two co-exist, but increasingly community is hard to find in the Church. The scope of this paper will deal with Christian community as defined above. Although most conclusions will (and should) apply to the described Church, some will hold no relevance.
The Triune God
The Trinity is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. It is not so difficult to understand God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit as it is to realize the implications of having the Three in One. We often find ourselves assuming, for example, the Father creates, the Son saves and the Spirit empowers. A closer look at Scripture reveals the interdependence of the Trinity:
Did the Father create alone? Genesis says that God created through the Spirit, and John says that the Son, or Logos, was present (Gen. 1:1, 2:7; John 1:3). What about in salvation? Jesus Christ saves, but only as he is resurrected by the Father and commits his spirit to the Father and receives the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:4-6; Acts 2:33-34). And what about the Spirit’s work of sanctification? We’re sanctified by the Spirit of Jesus through the work of God sustaining us (1 Cor. 6:11; Rom. 8:28-39).
A fascinating concept for this interdependence is perichoresis. James Torrance describes perichoresis as “a bond of mutual love and mutual self-giving – of mutual “indwelling”.” Kerry Dearborn calls perichoresis a divine dance of love and communion. In essence, God is loving relationship. God does not act alone, whether in creation, salvation or sanctification. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit may represent certain actions, but they never act apart from one another; it is not in God’s nature to act alone. So, to be perichoretically related to one another is not merely to interact but to live in interdependence.
This image of God (imago Dei) as an interdependent and loving relationship is further understood in creation. In Genesis 2, God created a helper because it was not good for man to function alone and independently. God’s image was not accurately reflected until humanity was in loving relationship. For God’s essence is loving relationship, and the essence of humanity, as God’s creation, also needed to be relationship. This is how we image God; this is how we were designed.
Community through and in Jesus Christ
It is through Jesus Christ that humanity participates in the divine Trinitarian communion, which is experienced in community. Torrance beautifully describes Christ’s role of enabling communion with God, and with each other:
God comes to us in Jesus to stand in for us and bring to fulfillment his purposes of worship and communion. Jesus comes to be the high priest of creation to do for us, men and women, what we failed to do, to offer to the Father the worship and the praise we failed to offer, to glorify God by a life of perfect love and obedience, to be the one true servant of the Lord. In him and through him we are renewed by the Spirit in the image of God and in the worship of God in a life of shared communion.
Christian community is thus only possible because of Jesus Christ. Our interaction with the Father comes only through the divine humanity of Christ. And so our community is only realized through Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer affirms, “Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us.” It is only through Christ we can claim community. “We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.” Bonhoeffer explains:
What does this mean? It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.
Christian community occurs only through this fundamental understanding. And Christian community is thus acted out, as Christ exists in community.
Christ acts through his body, and his body is the church, realized in community. This community exists for others; it draws people of every calling, showing people what it means to live in Christ. The community lives as visible salt and light, acting as a witness for Christ. God’s character is revealed as gifts and talents are identified, developed and utilized. Needs are met and people are cared for. Egocentricity fades and the church becomes less of an organization to fulfill religious needs. The community learns the church is One Man; and no one can become a new person except by entering the church and becoming a member of the Body of Christ. All who are baptized are one in Christ; the local assembly is the body just as the global church. Christian community is thus established and made real in Christ.
Ancient Church
A look at the New Testament and early church provides a glimpse of how the body of Christ manifested itself in Christian community. In Acts 2:44-46, we see physical expressions of fellowship among the believers:
And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved.
It is here that we see the gospel is a communal affair, and to embrace the gospel is to enter community. Believing in Christ led to a change in lifestyle; one could not happen without the other. The fellowship was a unique, counter-cultural community of distinct relationships, centered on Christ. The apostle Paul understood the church as a Heavenly reality to which all Christians belong. And through this community in Christ, freedom could be found. Apart from the body of Christ, humanity remained in bondage to the compulsions of sin.
The early church established itself as a family. The goal was to make mature individuals in a mature community. These small communities gathered in houses, shared meals, and were concerned with caring for one another. Their relationships were unique, very genuine and very personal.
Participation in the community centered primarily on fellowship, expressed in word and deed, of the members with God and one another. It demonstrates concretely the already-experienced reconciliation between the individual and God and the individual and his fellow-men: the gifts and fruit of the Spirit being the instruments through which this is expressed and deepened.
These relationships were constantly deepening because of the commitment the fellowship had for one another. In the 3rd century church, for example, joining the community was a two to three year process. The conversion to Christianity was incredibly serious and necessitated a lifestyle change. Evangelism occurred in stages and included inquiry, hearing, purification and enlightenment, and finally entrance into the full life of the church. After the believer had assured belief and was baptized, they broke through into the final stage of community and shared the Lord’s Supper.
Theology in Practice
This theology of Christian community is grounded in the understanding that the nature of the Triune God is relationship, Jesus Christ enables communion, and the early church provides a model of fellowship. Now, I want to paint a picture of what Christian community could look like in my life. Aware of Bonhoeffer’s wise words, “God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious,” I paint this picture not as a demand, but as an exercise of creativity.
I picture a neighborhood where several humble houses are situated around each other. The yards are not fenced in; instead there is one giant backyard, shared between all the houses. My wife and I live in a house, and our friends, some single and some married, live all around us. The houses all have bedrooms and a kitchen and a living room, but there is another house that is dedicated to the community. That is where we all eat weekly meals together, watch movies and play games. This house is our house. We meet, pray and worship together here. I guess it’s our own little church. It’s decorated with icons and art that speak to us as a community. We also have guest rooms in this house, for whoever is in need. This community of fellowship gives us a place to truly know ourselves, and empowers us to live the gospel. Because we are empowered, we often go out from this little community. We speak to others about the life we have found through and in Christ, and we are able to bring them to our community to experience Christ’s love.
Ours is a community of balance. There is understanding of the need to be alone, and of the need to be in community. We meet in the mornings to pray together. We expect each other to be spending time alone with God. We teach one another how to listen and how to help. We help each other with priorities, guarding not to become too busy. When someone is sick, we pray and care for them. When someone is joyous, we celebrate. We discern God’s call together, realizing God has brought us together here and now to support each other. It is in this place we can truly confess to one another, daring to be the sinners that we are. Communion is celebrated every meal we have together, because we understand all of this is only through and in Christ.
And we finally realize the complete joy of not being surrounded by strangers.
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Sources:
Tom Sine, Mustard Seed Versus McWorld: Reinventing Life and Faith for the Future (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999) 154.
Tod E. Bolsinger, It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2004) 62.
James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & The Triune God of Grace (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity, 1996) 32.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper and Row, 1954) 25.
John W. de Gruchy, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Cambridge: UP, 1999) 120.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan,1948) 99.
Robert Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community: The Early House Church in Their Historical Setting (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1980) 33.
Robert Weber, Ancient-Future Faith (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999) 147.