Learning to live in genuine community is one of the central goals that we have set for ourselves. And, to be honest, we did not set the goal—it is set before us in Scripture as one of the basic elements of the Christian faith. We are one in Jesus Christ, and this is not to be limited to Sunday morning when everyone is wearing their best clothes, when pretty much everyone took a shower, and everyone is on their best behavior. This is the place where we are woven into community, but the thing is not supposed to come unraveled as we are pulling out of the parking lot.
But community on Monday morning . . . that’s another thing. And Thursday afternoon can be even more difficult. Because living in community is what takes the rough edges off . . . but before it takes the rough edges off, living in community reveals those rough edges.
Some of you are regularly late to things. Some of you don’t return things that you have borrowed in a timely way. Some of you think that community means other people baby-sitting for you. Some of you think that community means that your business doesn’t have to honor delivery dates, or honor your word in other respects. Some of you think that community means having a right to be a grouch. Some of you think that community means flirting with all the sisters, or with all the brothers as the case may be.
Community brings all this out, but community, over time, is also supposed to deal with it.
We are tangled up in one another’s lives, and this is as it ought to be. But we are not tangled up so that we would surrender to various forms of thoughtlessness.
Confronting this kind of thing as appropriate, covering it in love as appropriate, is the training ground that God has given to us. We are a rag tag collection of forgiven sinners, and a number of us have some messy things lying about in our lives. The task before us is to pick up, and to help one another do so in all patience.
So patience does not mean leaving it alone. Addressing it firmly does not mean impatience. And learning how to do this is one of God’s great gifts to us.
http://thermidormag.com/the-submission-of-ross-douthat/
I wonder if Douthat is postmillennialist? Then he’d have good reason to never question the inevitable redemption and success of global liberalism.
Maybe, but that’s not an obvious conclusion to be drawn from postmillennialism. God’s patience with wickedness is greater than ours. (Gen 15:16 comes to mind.)
My question is: Where does this type of community even exist anymore? It may be an anomaly in Moscow, Idaho, but this type of community really isn’t around in present-day America. Churches are more loose affiliations of Christians to a particular domination. And if this type of community generally does not exist, how do you create one?
Be the community you want to see in the world. Do hospitality. Invite people over. Feed them. Make it a potluck if need be. Talk about community and see whose ears perk up. Partner with them to figure out the next step, and take it. Be forgiving and patient with the folks who are resistant. Laugh to yourself over their unwitting participation that provided the catalyst for forgiveness and patience. Pray about it. Read books about it. Ask your church leaders about their vision for community and how you could help further it.
That enough to start with? ????
All the more reason to promote walkable, mixed use neighborhoods. It’s hard to have community in a suburban environment designed to isolate.
People have cars and have reasonable reasons to live in different places. Bloom where you’re planted; don’t demand the soil change first.