Christian Community: Real & Fake

Collection of Quotations: Christian “Community”

 Anti-Community (= Church)

The Barna study points out that despite a growing epidemic of loneliness, only 10% report going to church to find community. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because people expect the church is the last place they’ll find community. And that’s tragic. Of the many criticisms that can be levied at the church, lack of community shouldn’t be one. Nobody should be able to out-community the local church. [Carey Nieuwhof, 5 Reasons People Have Stopped Attending Your Church (Especially Millennials), Carey Nieuwhof, Apr. 2, 2014]

Being Known - Friendship

“C. S. Lewis argues that it takes a community of people to get to know an individual person. Reflecting on his own friendships, he observed that some aspects of one of his friend’s personality were brought out only through interaction with a second friend. That meant if he lost the second friend, he lost the part of his first friend that was otherwise invisible. “By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.”221 If it takes a community to know an ordinary human being, how much more necessary would it be to get to know Jesus alongside others? By praying with friends, you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived.”  [Timothy Keller. Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy With God, Penguin, 2014]

Church’s Future

The biggest challenge for the church at the opening of the twenty-first century is to develop a solution to the discontinuity and fragmentation of the American lifestyle. [Lyle Schaller, speech, leadership network conference in Ontario, ca., oct. 1998; in: Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community, Zondervan, 2001, p. 37]

The future of the church depends on whether it develops true community. We can get by for a while on size, skilled communication, and programs to meet every need, but unless we sense that we belong to each other, with masks off, the vibrant church of today will belong to each other, will become the powerless church of tomorrow. Stale, irrelevant, a place of pretense where sufferers suffer alone, where pressure generates conformity rather than the Spirit creating life – that’s where the church is headed unless it focuses in community. [Larry Crabb, in: Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community, Zondervan, 2001, p. 13]

Community as Proof, as “Witness”

“Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful – Christian community is the final apologetic.” [Francis Schaeffer (1912-84), source?]

“The best evidence of the gospel is a community that lives by it.” [Alan Hirsch, paraphrasing Lesslie Newbigin; podcast: “Genuine Community with Alan Hirsch, Shaun Alexander, Bob Roberts, and Elliot Grudem, The Saturate Podcast S02 E15, Ben Connelly, Aug. 4, 2021, 37:18; @ 3:23]

“I am suggesting that the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it.” [Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 1989, Erdmans]

Jesus did not write a book but formed a community. [Michael Moynagh, Church in Life: Innovation, Mission and Ecclesiology, 2017, SCM Press, UK, p. 185]

As we have freely received the kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus, so may our communities of worship and service be true fellowships of love. The world will then truly see and receive our witness because they see how we love each other. [Roberta Hestenes, “Living the Christian Life: Christian Community and World Evangelization,” Lausanne Movement, May 21, 2018]

Decline of Christianity

The retreat from Christianity wasn’t happening in a bubble, wrote Robert Putnam, a Harvard political scientist, in his book “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us” [Simon & Schuster, Oct. 5, 2010] Americans were becoming disconnected and didn’t trust their foundational institutions anymore, including the church. / But young people’s rejection of faith went deeper, Putnam argued. The evangelical church was more focused on fighting for morality than compassion, he believed. While churches gave away turkeys at Thanksgiving, organized toy drives at Christmas and helped fund missionaries across the globe to spread the salvation message, the message didn’t translate into grace for the suffering in their own backyards. / Among the growing number of skeptics in America, Barna found the majority thought church members weren’t connected to one another in life-changing ways, did little to add any value to their communities and were led by people who didn’t show love for one another. [Joy Lukachick Smith, “When Helping Heals,” Chattanooga Times Free Press(Tn.), Mar. 2016]

Health

If you want to get healthy, you just might not want to go to a doctor. You might instead, go to church.  The power of community to create health is far greater than any physician, clinic or hospital. -- Richard K. Stephens note (4/9/22): But churches characterized by false “community,” standoffishness, or cold-hearted piousness, neglect have the power to destroy health. [Mark Hyman, MD, “How Social Networks Control Your Health,” Dr. Hyman website, Dec.11, 2019(?)]

Integrity of the Gospel

Brian Fikkert: “Do you realize that what is at stake here is not just the children of this city, but the very integrity of the gospel itself is at stake?” [Joy Lukachick Smith, “When Helping Heals,” Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tn.), Mar. 2016]

“Love One Another”(John 15:12-17)

[John 15:12: This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. John 15:17: These things I command you, that ye may love one another.] -- Every one of the numerous biblical texts on unity and relationships within the Christian community can be seen as an explication of Jesus’ “new” that Christians are to love one another as Christ loves them. This is not merely a sentimental regard for each other. This love which Christ commands is more than a tolerant forbearance of different traditions, denominations, or agencies. It is not a capitulation to relativism which is to characterize every Christian person and group of persons. It is an intentional commitment to costly, sacrificial, compassionate, caring, and self-denying service to the Christian community. We are called by Jesus Christ to be committed to each other as we walk together as disciples, ambassadors, and agents of reconciliation in all the world (John 15:9-17; 2 Corinthians 4:5; 5:16-21; 6:3-10). [Roberta Hestenes, “Living the Christian Life: Christian Community and World Evangelization,” Lausanne Movement, May 21, 2018]

The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. [Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community, 1939; 1954 English, Harper]

[W]e must love brotherly without dissimulation; we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren. [John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity" delivered on board the ship Arbella while en route to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, April 8, 1630]

One of the great barriers to effectiveness in worldwide evangelization is the way Christians treat each other. All too often what the world says when it sees the church up close is not, “See how they love one another”, but “See how they attack and hurt each other.” In spite of the prayer of Jesus for complete unity for his followers, it is shocking to see alongside wonderful manifestations and expressions of spiritual unity an almost casual acceptance of competitive rivalry, disunity, and hostility. This can be seen in all levels of life in the church from the individual to the congregation, to the national and international reality of a divided church. [Roberta Hestenes, “Living the Christian Life: Christian Community and World Evangelization,” Lausanne Movement, May 21, 2018]

A Strong Commitment to One Another – “All the believers were together and had everything in common. (Acts 2:44) – A Christ-honoring community displays loyalty, dependability, mutual support, respect, and grace to one another. They are not just unified. They have a strong sense of the priority of unity. They make unity work. They know it takes effort. It means letting go of petty differences and self-centered agendas. It also results from the core culture of the church believing that what we are to one another is as important as what we’re doing together. [Mike Ayers, ”6 Traits of Authentic Christian Community,” For the Church,” Aug. 5, 2015]

“Do good to all men, especially the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10.)

Marginalization

The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from everyday Christian life in community may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; for in the poor sister or brother, Christ is knocking at the door. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 5: Life Together (1938) and Prayerbook of the Bible, 1996, pp. 45f]

The development of meaningful relationships, where every member carries a significant sense of belonging, is central to what it means to be the church. So why do many Christians feel disappointed and disillusioned with their efforts to experience authentic community? Despite the best efforts of pastors, small group leaders, and faithful lay persons, church too often is a place of loneliness rather than connection. Church can be so much better. So intimate and alive. [Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community, Zondervan; Apr. 3, 2001]

Neglect of One’s Congregation

The Chalmers Center [founded by Brian Fikkert] has witnessed stories of churches shifting millions of dollars to help transform the lives of the poor in their neighborhoods. Since 2012 the staff has trained 232 churches and 144 nonprofit organizations from mega churches to 70-member congregations from coast to coast to use their faith-and-finance class. / They’ve heard many stories similar to North Avenue Presbyterian Church in midtown Atlanta whose 950 members revamped their benevolence giving, then looked within their own congregation and found dozens of members homeless. Church leaders offered the faith-and-finance class. After 10 people graduated, they set up a matched-savings account to help with purchases for goals to get better jobs or to go back to school. [Joy Lukachick Smith, “When Helping Heals,” Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tn.), Mar. 2016]

Piety

Robert J. Putnam: “Conversely, if you are unbelievably deeply religious, you pray every day, five times a day, and you say that religion is the most important thing in your life, but you sit alone in the pews and pray alone and don’t have friends in church, then you’re, statistically speaking, not any better a neighbor than a secular person is. So it’s a pretty strong relationship. It’s not so much faith as communities of faith that seem to make people nicer.” [“Robert D. Putnam: America's grace,” Faith & Leadership, Jan, 17, 2011]

Relational Generosity - Absence

Taken together, a significant number of young adults perceive a lack of relational generosity within the U.S. Christian community. Perhaps more concerning are the two-thirds of Millennials who believe that American churchgoers are a lot or somewhat hypocritical (66%). To a generation that prides itself on the ability to smell a fake at ten paces, hypocrisy is a worrisome indictment. [“What Millennials Want When They Visit Church,” Barna, Mar 4, 2015]

Small Groups are Not “Community”

Most of us have never experienced the true power of community. The social-oriented programming that many churches call small groups or koinonia groups have little effect on character. True community means living in submission to each another. It requires the work of the Holy Spirit to submit to others and to allow others and to allow others to play a meaningful part in our growth. [Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Becoming a Disciple, 2006, NavPress, p. 31]

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Ekklesia (long text)

Excerpted from: Chuck Proudfit, “Citywide Marketplace Ministry as 21st Century Workplace Ekklesia”; Faith@Work Summit, Dallas, Oct. 24, 2016 (posted online Oct 25, 2017); 15:32 - Transcript (2018 words) 

The word that ties them all together is ekklesia.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus is typically quoted to say, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” In this passage, the exact translation of the word “church” is ekklesia. This is significant, because the concept of ekklesia originated hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth. Ekklesia originated in Greece as a governing assembly, but it was perfected by the Roman Empire. When Rome would conquer a territory they would win the peace by sending out what they called an “ekklesia:” A small number of upstanding Roman citizens who had moved into the conquered territory. They move in with the locals, acculturating them in the language and the lifestyle of Rome, until everyone around them walked and talked like a Roman. It's striking that in Matthew 16:18 Jesus did not say, “I will build my synagogue,” or, “I will build my temple,” although he loved them both. Jesus said, “I will build my ekklesia,” a small number of fully devoted followers who will infiltrate the culture around them for Christ –and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

This was a brilliant strategy on Jesus’s part. He was co-opting a familiar Roman concept and infusing it with Kingdom DNA. The early church executed this strategy with excellence within a few hundred years it had grown from a hundred and twenty believers in an upper room in Jerusalem to become a transformational force for change across the Roman Empire.

And beyond the stories I've shared, our stories about the ekklesia at work – beyond the four walls, there are also stories about the at work on purpose ministry. And you can learn more about us by visiting at workonpurpose.org/faithatwork.

At Work On Purpose is a twenty-first century expression of the first century ekklesia at work. We're a community of over 8,000 working Christians in Cincinnati who are coming together; together to restore the city's marketplace for Christ – one job, one employer, one industry, at a time – to engage working Christians across church-homes, denominations, zip codes, and ministries, to operate as a spiritual network of influence throughout an entire city, to connect marketplace resources to city-reaching initiatives, so we can better transform the communities where we work and where we live.

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[Updated 4/9/22]

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