Community of the Church Haters
From day one I have felt called to reach far from God people. People who still to this day do not want anything to do with the church or even Jesus Christ. Or people like myself who have been turned away from what churches have become, closed and cold or open yet demanding. I constantly ask myself what it really means to live in authentic community with others but also wreak of being inclusive. Can true community really exist?
For instance, I have one sixteen year old girl who comes to church practically every Sunday who rarely talks but when she does speak up, she tries to disprove everything we are discussing. After church she passes out her Anarchist literature to the rest of the youth group. She is searching. She has something to say. Should she be silenced or embraced?
I hang out with a bunch of guys my age that are not Christians and have absolutely no desire in becoming one. The first time I met these guys they wouldn’t look me in the eye because they knew I was a pastor. Through many months of just hanging with these guys where they normally hang, we be have become closer and closer. Now we are great friends. I never initiate any conversation about my job or my relationship with God, but it always comes up. These guys are searching. They have something to say. I was just recently told by one of these guys that, ”The best thing about you Josh, is that you have never invited me to your church.” You see, I met them in their “community” and never asked them to leave.
There is a man I know in the church that forfeits time with his family, friends, pleasure, rest, life, etc. for a life lived in the church. He works more than eighty hours a week for the church. He is looked upon as having a great sense of calling and that he understands community. Though when you want to develop a relationship with him you quickly find that he just doesn’t have the time because he is too busy with “church work”. He desires community but morphs community into tasks. I don’t envy him a bit.
Can community truly exist? Or does community exist within our shitty attempt at it? Can true “community” become a reality? In and out of the church we struggle to make this work.
What do you think?
For instance, I have one sixteen year old girl who comes to church practically every Sunday who rarely talks but when she does speak up, she tries to disprove everything we are discussing. After church she passes out her Anarchist literature to the rest of the youth group. She is searching. She has something to say. Should she be silenced or embraced?
I hang out with a bunch of guys my age that are not Christians and have absolutely no desire in becoming one. The first time I met these guys they wouldn’t look me in the eye because they knew I was a pastor. Through many months of just hanging with these guys where they normally hang, we be have become closer and closer. Now we are great friends. I never initiate any conversation about my job or my relationship with God, but it always comes up. These guys are searching. They have something to say. I was just recently told by one of these guys that, ”The best thing about you Josh, is that you have never invited me to your church.” You see, I met them in their “community” and never asked them to leave.
There is a man I know in the church that forfeits time with his family, friends, pleasure, rest, life, etc. for a life lived in the church. He works more than eighty hours a week for the church. He is looked upon as having a great sense of calling and that he understands community. Though when you want to develop a relationship with him you quickly find that he just doesn’t have the time because he is too busy with “church work”. He desires community but morphs community into tasks. I don’t envy him a bit.
Can community truly exist? Or does community exist within our shitty attempt at it? Can true “community” become a reality? In and out of the church we struggle to make this work.
What do you think?
posted by Joshua Sager at
1:11 AM
7 Comments:
Hey Josh. . .nice question. . .some friends and I have talked a lot about this in past couple of months and. . .well. . .I wish I knew a good answer. . .I wonder if a lot of our lack of real Community has to do with our location and our micro-society's desire to never, ever, upon fear of near death, appear dependent. . .
It seems like we (especially we as a Church) have made it almost a sin to actually appear needful of anything. . .
Until I can get past that prideful attitude. . .man. . .community seems a long way off. . .
can a true and authentic community really exist? of course it can and it does. in your case, it the guys you hangout with that accept you and you them inspite of what you know about each other.
the real question that needs to be asked is, can a true and authentic community really exist inside the walls of the church? from my experience, not likely. that would require people who have changed hearts. people who are humbled by their faith instead of selfrighteous by what they believe. people who see it necessary to take their eyes off of themselves and what they get out of church so that they can focus them on others.
used car salesmen don't have the stigma that they have for nothing....
eddie
Yes, community can exist, if we stop all the christian busywork and be about the business of intentional, committed relationships.
That guy you were talking about - That was me. So busy doing "church work" that there was no time to spend developing friendships, getting to know my "family" better. I took a leave of absence (well, more AWOL actually) the week after Easter, and my life has changed dramatically. Still waiting to see how far the pendulum swings in this direction.
I don't have that problem. I go to a church where everyone admits that they are overbearing pompus assholes and we pity anyone who doesn't believe in the same God as we do and we all avoid the rest of the world and watch videos on saturdays showing drugged dolphins being mated with drunk sharks (the result, a Dork) and we never pray in public and we all get along like gal-dern gangbustas and have NO issues at all because we are up front about the fact that we will live the rest of our lives like the "lucky ones with the pre-flight insurance" while the rest of the world's plane is soaring into the teeth of a mighty looming volcano that resembles the Rancor Monster from RETURN OF THE JEDI and we all love to spike whiskey with punch at our parties and we're ALL QUITE happy with ourselves, thank ya very much!
hehehe... cool comments.
The problem with community is that it's all around us but we refuse to see it. What exists in nature, isn't GOOD enough for us. We are special, so we require more. Instead of belonging to real community, we want to create the perfect "God flavored" community that will protect us from real life. Instead of being a part of what's going on around us, we choose to hide in the artificial habitat that, in reality, probably doesn't look ANYTHING like God.
So anyway, nice post Josh. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on stuff.
in all seriousness:
why is it that we question church people for all their faults, and there are plenty of them, but we don't question secular people's faults... we seem to just realize that secular people are just being who they are, so in a sense it's like they're are 'redeemed' because they 'just cant help it'...
but church people, ie, believers, are held up with a deeper critique somehow...
i mean, the entire liberal athiestic world judges christians (not buddhists, not even muslims, and DEFINITLY not jews, only Christians), so i dont think we should do the same...
it's sort of like a jellyfish biting a seal that a shark had just killed or something...
oh and speaking of that, i owned a jellyfish once, and i named her Laura, as in, Laura Scudders... she was so cool, and so fast... she JAMMED!
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