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true community
[Rob Harter]
01/28/2010
By Harter, Rob
Rob Harter Blog
[Rob Harter]
01/20/2010
By Admin, Admin
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Rob Harter
In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s inspiring book “Life Together”, he describes the nature of a true Christ-centered, Spirit-led community. The triune reality of God informs us that God Himself is a three-in-one community. At the heart of a Christ-follower’s life should be a deep need for and a strong calling towards community. When Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come”, he is not just speaking to individuals. In the context, he is speaking to the entire Christian community. However, in our individualistically-centered American culture, we too often get this “Jesus and Me” mentality that is foreign to the New Testament text.
That is one of the aspects I most appreciated about Bonhoeffer’s book. He is radically community-centered. He is aware that the church of Jesus Christ is made up of messy, complicated, difficult-to-love people. In spite of this, we are called to “recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body”. Therefore, as Bonhoeffer continues, the church gathered should meet each other “in reverence, humility and joy” every time it gathers together.
Today, some of the biggest barriers against this ideal picture of community that Bonhoeffer paints include our rampant individualism, ubiquitous consumerism and high-speed-internet pace of life. When I contrast this beautiful picture of true Christian community Bonhoeffer offers in his book with the reality of what our culture calls community, I struggle with feelings of discouragement. Despite this, Christ has called us to pursue this radical, others-centered community. Lesslie Newbigin gives us a hopeful vision of what the church could be in his book, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society when he says, “the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it”. Our hope still rests in Christ, whopromises that He: “will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18).
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