A Thought About Christian Community

By Stephanie Snyder

I was just reading Romans 12 today, and I saw something that I thought would be worth sharing.

Romans 12:4-5 - "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." What stood out to me here is that we each belong to all the others. This is cool, because we have a great sense of belonging. But, also, this implies that there is a need to be willing to submit one to another and to surrender our rights for the benefit of the community. For we belong to one another.

God said way back in Genesis that it is not good for man to be alone. Our discipleship is going to happen in the context of community.

Also, in the context of community, sooner or later there is going to be conflict. When that happens, I think it can be tempting to disengage from the community, but I believe that God wants us to learn how to deal with conflict in the context of community. This is where the refiner's fire of the Holy Spirit will sanctify us.

Finally, our community needs to be Christ-centered. This is key, and this is difficult. But the word fellowship, when properly used, is really reserved for believers. Non-Christians can experience community and friendship, and God can and does use those kind of non-Christian communities and friendships for His glory to draw men toHimself.

But non-believers can not experience authentic fellowship, because real fellowship can only happen between Christians. The point is that not all community - even between Christians - is really Christian community. But when Christians come together for the purpose of glorifying God as a community (rather than as individuals), then we experience something the world can never experience without God.