The Loss of Community

Work, studies, teaching, etc. has kept me away from the blog quite a bit recently. I did have one thought I wanted to get off my chest before I forgot, so thus the late night posting. :)

With all the news of divorces and affairs on the mainstream media lately, I can't help but notice a common thread among all of the public "confessions" that have been broadcast, most of which seem to be coming from professing Christians. It goes something like this...

"I did such and such because of such and such in my life and I regret what I have done because I know I shouldn't have but I and me and my and I'm..."

Or maybe the ever so popular, "Now I just need to move on with my life... I need to do what's best for me..."

These moments shout to me of how sad the extreme presence of Western individualism has turned our culture into something very, to use an overused term, unbiblical. We (and I'm speaking just as much to myself as anyone) are so absorbed in "our" life that we forget how much "our" life affects the lives of others. There is very little sense of "other" in our culture. So incredibly sad. When it is found it is refreshing... but it seems like it is becoming much less common with each passing day. Perhaps the saddest part of all of it is how this is overwhelmingly present in the Western (at least North American) church. The Church is no longer something we "are," as a community of believers who share a common set of beliefs and a common commission, but something we "do," as individuals. We are focused upon "our relationship" with the Father rather than the purpose and mission that unites us to the Body (worldwide) as children of God. We "go" to church instead of realizing that we "are" the Church.

So how do we resist the tendencies to an overemphasized invidualism? I don't pretend to know how to change something so pervasive. I do know that we must immerse ourselves, reluctant as we may be, in the believing community and understand God's true purpose for the Body of Christ. By immerse I certainly don't mean that we turn inward and ignore those to whom our commission sends us, but rather we understand who we are in order to shine brightly as a city, not a single lamp, on a hill. We mustn't just change our minds, but changes our patterns of thought, speech, and action. It won't happen by hearing a good sermon or two. It will happen by an intentional effort on the part of local churches to reclaim the true sense of community that the Body of Christ should exemplify.

Well that is my late night rambling. Hopefully it wasn't completely incoherent, and hopefully my next one won't take this long again!