The purpose of the church:
I believe one of Christ's primary desires for the church is to be a place where people can come and experience community while being nurtured and motivated to a deeper walk with Christ. Jesus Christ modeled this community by calling 12 disciples and building a community of service, devotion, and teaching. After receiving the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost these disciples dispersed and began building communities throughout the nation of Israel and Asia minor. And so the church age began, based on the fundamental concept of fellowship within community. "They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity-all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved." (Acts 2:46,47).
Humans were created for relationship and community. This concept comes from the very nature of who God is as displayed in the trinity (a community of three persons who are one). From this nature of God comes a desire within us who bear His image for a community with other people with whom we can be likeminded. This individuality which bears oneness is a mark of who God is and what he has called the church to. "Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all." (Eph. 4:3-6).
How is this oneness actually accomplished? I find that in community after community people are excited about helping new people become a part of their team. There is an excitement as new personalities and new talents are added to a team. Sooner or later (not to be a doomsayer but....) an individual comes along who seems to grind against the oneness of team life. Maybe this individual is more of a taker than a giver. Maybe they embarrass us or invade our comfort zones. Maybe their influence carries our team in a direction that gives us concern or violates our convictions. What is the Christians role in these situations?
The prototype for the restoration of oneness to a community is found in God's example of reconciling us to himself after we had been cut off. "A new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead,"Come back to God!" For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17b-21).
Fundamentally the breakdown of oneness in a community is because of sin. Ever since the fall of Satan sin has caused separation of oneness. It happened in the Garden of Eden and it has been happening ever since. As soon as sin enters a community oneness becomes division and discord instead of the unity that God intended. This sin can come from two places: our sin and the sin of others around us.
Our sin: When we are hanging onto things that God intends for us to let go (rights, pride, jealousy) we will soon be working against the people we are supposed to partner with and oneness is broken. Whenever there is a breakdown of unity we must carefully examine our own hearts and repent of the sin that God reveals to us. Only then after we have removed our own beam can we have any part in helping to remove someone else's splinter (See Matt. 7). We must be filled with God's life giving water in order to have the grace to lay ourselves down for the team in a way that brings oneness.
Others sin: When others on our team do not have God's life giving water flowing out of them they will also lack the grace to give to the team. I believe that one of the primary reasons "misfits" have trouble feeling a part of a community is because they lack the ability to serve the team. Proverbs 18:24 (KJV) says, "A man that hath friends must show himself friendly." The selfishness of others and their inability to exemplify Christ's nature can tear down the team as well.
Many people lack the ability to give to others because their own emotional and spiritual cup is not filled and overflowing with God's grace. The first step as we build our teams must be to draw people to a passionate life giving relationship with Christ that is beyond just knowing God. We must call people to a relationship with God to the point that they are filled with the Holy Spirit and bearing the Spirit's fruit (love, joy, peace) in their lives. For so long we have put up with nominal Christianity. Nominal Christianity is essentially non-Christianity. It is totally powerless in changing our world. It stinks of apathy, discouragement, and discord when displayed in our communities.
In the end it all comes back to us because we cannot call people to something that we know nothing about. A community of oneness must be based upon individuals who have a "fresh bubbling spring within them." (John 4:14) and allow this spring to flow to others. This spring is contagious. True oneness within the community is found when our bubbling spring flows out to others and causes them to become a bubbling spring. As these bubbling springs flow together they become a river that of healing for the needy world around us. As long as we cut off the "misfits" that God has placed around us and protect ourselves from the baggage that these people bring our communities will only reach a superficial level of oneness instead of becoming the place that God so desires. A place for the needy to find Him and experience for themselves the bubbling spring of eternal life. A community that changes the world and makes passers-by take note that these people have been with Jesus.
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