Community // doing life together

I left my inspiration for a pot-stirring post at home today, but there is one thing on my mind that I have to get out there, and it deals with the local church and community. I’ve had these thoughts for a long time (as I think anyone should who critically and rigorously studies the Scripture about the New Testament church), but they were fanned hotter last week as I read “Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne (I have a lot of red flags and a lot of green flags about that book, so that comes later). For now…community in the local body.

Basically my opinion…I don’t see it (enough in the American body of Believers anyway).

We come to a building, we call it church, and we go home. We make an effort at “community” groups, but they often tend to be little more than what we do on a Sunday morning, just in a smaller building we call a house.

But what happened to, they shared everything and not one of them had need among them. That’s actually in the Bible. Its scandalous. Its sketchy. Its beautiful. Its extremely difficult to pull off. Its something that Kristen and I have attempted to a small degree over the past year and half or so (though more specifically in the last few months) as we’ve been in community with a small group of people. We try to cook with people as opposed to “bringing a dish.” We invite people to hang out for an entire day as opposed to a couple of hours. We go to the store together to get our needs for the evening and split it. When the AC’s out, we call friends (and invite ourselves over to watch the race). When our house is being shown by the realtor and we have to drive around for a little while we call friends to see if we can pee in their bathroom. We go to restaurants where friends cook and have community meals as opposed to individual meals and split the entire bill. We go to soccer games where our friend coaches. We serve together. I want to go further.

One guy I know does. He might get mad that I’m even putting this on here, but Franklin Baxter is the man at giving himself to help other people. I’ve seen it from leading a team at a local elementary school for a work day, to coming over after Camp Cornerstone (VBS) one night to repair my washing machine (which by the way, we can now leave the lid open and watch the clothes wash…not that we would…but still). I don’t have much to offer in the way Franklin does, but he’s one of the examples I follow in how to live in servanthood to other people.

This is what I want to get to more of. I want to share my life with people. I want people to come to my house when their AC breaks. I want to share my spare bedroom with people. I want to share the food in my refrigerator with people. I want to go do the things they like to do. I want to share with the community of people around me so that none of us is ever in need. I want to quit getting together and forcing a Bible study because “we should” and just talk about how God is moving in my life as it comes naturally. I want real community like those Believers had in Acts who had no insurance, no guaranteed freedoms, very little knowledge about how all this “should work,” but had each other.

Above all, I want to like it, no, I want to love it!