The Church as Real Community

The church as the community of the king must be a demonstration of the values of the kingdom. We must flesh out what it means to love one another, to do justice, to serve others. -Isabelo Magalit Filipina Theologian

This is the heart of what the Deacons, and to some extent the whole of our church community, are struggling with right now. What are those values that we should be demonstrating and what do they look like, feel like, smell like and taste like in the real world of our everyday existance. What does it mean to love one another?

In our Wednesday small group it is very easy because I am with people like myself; older middle class professionals. We share much in common and enjoy similar things. As I move out from this close circle of friends, it becomes more and more difficult for me to connect with people. We have fewer and fewer common interest to discuss, we find cultural and generational differences that are hard bridge. We begin to leave our zones of comfort and maybe even our safe zones. We begin to find real conflicts with our own self interest, wishes, and desires.

Yesterday, after church, one the ladies I drive to church, asked me if I would take her to Walmart. All I wanted to do is go home and rest. I hate shopping at Walmart, but for some reason I said yes. After Trudy and I followed her around on her shopping trip for an hour, we took her home. As she was getting out of the car she said,"It was nice to have someone to talk to so I would not be so lonely today”. How many of our friends are lonely and just need us to give a few hours of our time. It is especially hard with those in our community that we find the hardest to visit with, those with whom we we have the least amount of connection, the least amount of commonality and who because of this maybe the loneliest.

When I was teaching school the kids I worried the most about were the ones who were not the best or worst, but those who did not show up on anybody’s radar. The ones who were invisible. Often they were most needy in terms of friendship. We can fill our days with family, good friends, and interesting people and never meet Christ.