Friday, September 21, 2007


As I walked around the mountains streets with some of my dearest friends, we talked about community, about what it would look like to live with other believers in one place and live life together. THIS...this is what I think it would look like. Or what God would want it to look like. A little bit messy, beautiful, unique, distinct, together, GLORIOUS! I have been thinking about what community really truly means. I don't think it means being in a bible study, I don't think it means having coffee, I don't think it means asking how one another is doing. I think that all of those things are a part, but I think it truly means living life with one another.

How many people TRULY live life together? How many people open themselves up and really let others in day to day life? Honestly I have had a few tastes of what community is...what this picture represents. And let me tell you it is a beautiful thing. Just like this building in Vienna that I saw, I believe that people would flock to real community. If there was pure, true community I would even think that you wouldn't even have to advertise for it like people do for these tourist attractions because it would be so important that words about it would be buzzing around. Love, fellowship, true living and giving and being.

For a church to have community I see people watching TV together, cooking together, doing a race for the cure together, engaging in life. I see bible studies, accountability, spiritual discipleship being a part of community only if life is involved in it. To just study because it is what is supposed to be done is to community what paying bills is to a marriage. They are important things, but only under the idea of loving others, caring about others, and LIVING with others.

What does it look like for the church to have community? Without programs or activities or any agenda, I would say it looks like this building. To me, this embodies community.

1 comment:

Laura Rebekah said...

I admire your search for community and know that I have truly experienced your idea of community - with you! Some of my most cherished times, the times that I felt closest to God, are with you. And they weren't in a church, or at a Bible study - they were in our dorm room in college with three different kinds of ice cream, or in the kitchen in the girls' house dancing to Michael Jackson, or on the edge of the ocean watching the whales jump! You have taught me what it is to truly have community and I appreciate you beyond words! I love you, Cheryl! RE: Me