A Deep Longing for Community

I've been on a big community binge lately. Which is odd because of how much I enjoy being alone.  In fact, I'm alone right now and it feels good. But I can't seem to shake this desire for community.  I hate to use the cliche modifiers 'authentic', 'transparent' or 'real' simply because of how overused and abused those terms are. But isn't that what real community is, authentic, transparent and real? The irony slays me.

I've been teaching through Philippians with the youth ministry I'm a part of over the past few weeks, so I think this is a big part of it. I even shared some of my thoughts about this last week. I'm also coming to the potential end of my internship with WP Daily. So needless to say I've had plenty of time to reflect and think about this idea lately.

Here's where I've landed.

Church should be community. It shouldn't be a building, it shouldn't be a specific time of day or week, it should be life in community.  I wish I had better words to describe what I'm thinking.  All I know is that I'm getting entirely sick of the small minded idea that church is some place you go on Sunday mornings to sing some songs and listen to someone talk.

I'm tired of programs being the focus too.  Church shouldn't be about packing your already full calendar with more events. There shouldn't be inherent competition between ministries to pull of 'great' events.

I don't think this means we get rid of programs, I just think it means we re-evaluate what purpose our programs serve. I don't know what this means just yet, so feel free to criticize my lack of decision, but please don't confuse it with a lack of conviction.

I am more and more, each day, understanding what it is that I value, what I believe and what I think is worth fighting for.  And I know that community is something I believe in, something I value and something that I will fight for...even if I don't know exactly what I think it should look like.

I'm up for the adventure of figuring this out one day at a time, one relationship at a time, one screw up at a time. I'm under no illusion that I've got it all figured out but I do know that I'm on to something that is true.  We are built for community and I'm in hot pursuit of figuring out just what that means.