Why Christians Desperately Need to Re-think the Concept of Community...Again and Again

Is the idea of community in desperate need of overhauling?

I don’t know many Christian communities who come together to honor the life of a deceased or dying person, whose only connection to them that he was just a Christian like them. But in the virtual world community of Final Fantasy this past week, players from across the globe came together this week to honor a player who was dying from an incurable disease. Soon after he passed. You can find the article here.

I often hear traditional Christians who serve a traditional idea of church community speak suspiciously and cautiously of the virtual world as a gateway of disconnected, anti-social players who congregate only to escape the pressures of the world. Of course we know that the Church model of community changed, many times in fact, so it is often hard to peg down these traditionalists on what is the best structure and model of community? Is it the small house dwelling where only a handful of believers met? This is what my Pentecostal brethren used to think. Is it a middle-sized 400+ church broken out into smaller groups. This is what my Church of Christ pastor used to assert since the idea of a return to the 1st century church community of Christ is implausible. Or is it the large mega-church where thousands flock?

Before the virtual world became synonymous with anonymous community, music used to be the bane of every thorough-going traditionalists. Back then, the conversation centered on what were acceptable forms of music. Should we only have organs and voices? Should we use guitars and drums? How about the genre of music? Should we allow our expression of Christianity to cross into secular genres? Should we have Christian hip hop or Christian country?  How about secular music in the church. My Church of Christ community used to do this and I HATED it. So did a number of other. Listening to U2 took me back to some great parties, but not the throne room of God. Unfortunately, the pastor never relented. He was a music guy, and so that was that.

The very first evidence we have of a gathering of Christians singing comes from a letter from Pliny the Young to the Emperor Trajan about 90 years after Jesus’ death. It appears the music was only a capella and it was sung by a small group in the early morning hours. I would have been sleeping.

The point is community changes. And we at a stage in history and time where we can embrace those movements. In fact, the church more or less DOES embrace ecclesiological change, which makes it all the more baffling when I come across those who protest that community must be done in person! But ask a Roman Catholic priest if community is always in person and he might tell you to step on the other side of the confessional.  Community CAN BE ANONYMOUS and bonds can still be built.