Sunday, February 24, 2008

How To Go From Congregation to Community?

STEP 23 FROM CONGREGATIONS INTO COMMUNITY


Church congregations that are dying rarely have grown spiritually to the point of community, let alone family. The members merely congregate around worship and paying the bills. And if the worship is not attractive to outsiders than of course the group eventually dwindles and dies. They have nothing to offer.
A group that becomes or starts out as a real community has much more to offer than mere individuals is isolation. It is an entirely different animal and is experienced by the newcomer most differently. All of us need community. We are communal/social animals. We need a place/opportunity to receive, give, share, be taken seriously, live, die, celebrate and mourn. We need others in order to be and become ourselves. We need a place in which to ask questions and share answers. This does not happen in a congregation. It happens only within community, a place of family in the good sense. People that enter the church for the first time are impressed mostly by what sense of community (family) they experience. They may not be able to put it into those words but that is what it is usually about for them.
The music is important. So is the sermon and minister. Were they greeted warmly and honestly? Did the people hang around before and after talking and sharing? Were all ages and types at ease and welcome? Was there LIFE there, things going on that told you that words became action? But mainly, is there a feeling love? Do they care about each other? Would they care about you? Would you have to change and conform before they did? In short, firstly, is there real community and secondly, is it a community to which you would like to be a part of?
If you would survive and grow, churches, you must know that you only have yourselves to offer to others. You can not offer God/Christ apart from through you. And you can not do this as individuals only but only through community. Your first question MUST be, HOW CAN WE BECOME MORE OF A COMMUNITY OF FAITH (FAMILY)? At all board meetings this must be the underlying question and criteria for all other decisions. Questions regarding worship must be only answered by how a certain practice would build or detract from the sense of community. How dollars are spent. How seating is arranged. What happens to the children during worship. When the church building is open or closed. How the annual fund raising is done. Who greets at the door. If there is coffee after the service. Is there an open discussion after the service for those who have questions/comments/things to share.
I have been in very few church meetings where this is even mentioned. Those congregations were all in trouble though usually in a state of denial. A sense of community is built it to some traditions. Quakers, Hutterites, Mennonites, the Salvation Army, Mormons, and no doubt some others are built around the reality of community. Some so tightly that there is a real sense of exclusiveness, a them and us mentality that is quite unChristian. We must remind ourselves at all times that although the early People of the Way were most definitely a community/family and thrived because of this, they were open and welcoming to all around them. They were not dogmatic and narrow as many of the current examples are.
As I have mentioned before, the fact that new people keep entering churches of real community even though their theology and beliefs may be unreal, obscure and even bizarre only proves the fact that many people need community beyond all else. And it offers great hope to those churches that will strive to be both real in their practices and offer themselves as a believing, living, caring and loving community of faith. I don't really understand why they would want to be anything else in the first place.

One short event to share. Much earlier on, STEP I think, I mentioned how bad for worship the seating of the choir was in the church Judy and I were attending. As chance would have it, on Christmas Sunday the electric organ went on the fritz resulting in the choir having to actually leave their hidden cave and joining the worshipers below. We sat in the front pews (otherwise unoccupied) and went forward to sing from the steps that mounted to the elevated front of the church. It worked wonderfully! The choir increased the number of people by twenty-five per cent and changed the whole feeling. There was real communication in the the choral numbers. There was no doubt that the sense of community was greatly enhanced. Some of the choir members hated it; they weren't free to read or to sleep during the sermon. But many loved it.
What will happen to the congregation? Will a lesson be learned from this accident? Will an observation be made or a question asked? I doubt it. I certainly made my views known. But my opinion wouldn't count unless I was there for the long haul. The sense of community doesn't count either in that church. Too bad. They'll not be around for long. They're offering only words, not themselves. If they weren't there I doubt if many would notice. But a great piece of real estate would be open for another use. Maybe a community of faith.

"Where two or more are gathered in my name, I will be with them." - Jesus of Nazareth

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

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