The soul reason we have community is for growth within ourselves that allows us to be better witnesses to the world. As a christian, I have seen the benefits of a great community and how much I have grown in my walk with God. But, I have also seen the detrimental affects of exclusivity, language that doesn't build up, and lesser reliance on the cross; due to this word "community".
You make ask, "Is he saying that community does more bad than good?"
I would answer that with "maybe". In a surplus of christian communities, I have seen people become so reliant on their friends that they forget why they gather as a group, which is to worship God and grow in our walks with him. People have fell into a horrific feeling of not being included because Christians have neglected them and they end of obtaining feelings of depression, guilt, and fear. Some communities are so worried about the others sin and correcting them, but they refuse to see the "log in their own eye" as Jesus says in Matthew. Then it's this huge battle between, "he said....she said".
Lets end this for good.
As I try and reason out why people feel and react the way they do, I come to one common fact, which is we all have sin in our lives that only God can fix. We all need this heart transplant in our lives that will make us never want to return to the sin of our past. Most of the disease of community revolves around an identity issue among Christians. Romans 8:9 says, "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you." This answers all false teachings about our identity not being in Christ. One of the biggest sins of my generation is that we struggle with our identity being in the worlds view of us or being included in a group. In reality, our identity is found in being a new creation and passing away the old self. We abandoned our old selves so we could live to glorify and make God's name high.
If we ever want to change the damage done by community, we need to challenge ourselves to truly believe in our identity, that we are no longer slaves to our current sin or past. This allows for growth in our walk with God that can only be attributed to this new identity. A perfect example of this was in the disciples. They had twelve and they all had a close, intimate relationship with the living God and that identity secured them in ways that didn't lead to strife among them. But even within that, Jesus had his innermost group of three that he was closer with.
The picture of the disciples in the perfect picture of true community, where they learned and grew in group, in the presence of the living God. My prayer is that my community would find peace and hope in their identity of being a son of God that was chosen to fulfill God's will on this earth and in their life. Another challenge and prayer for my community is that we would continue to grow closer with one or two people in our group and grow in such an intimate relationship with them that we can talk intimately about our struggle and what God's teaching us. This is what I want and I believe God wants for his people. He wants a group of people to be so passionate about Him that they can't help but share His name to everyone they meet.
Prayers and love for readers,
Walter Huffstutler
