WEEK #3

Authentic Biblical Community

Are you experiencing “C”? - Part 3

It doesn’t matter whether you are in an adult Bible fellowship, a small group, or on a ministry team. The question is – Are you experiencing Authentic Biblical Community? The forms may vary but the function is non-negotiable for a Christian who wants to obey the New Testament and experience life as God intended it. The Bible requires every believer in the church to experience on-going authentic relationships with a community of believers who practice the “one another” commands. The purpose of this series of articles is to biblically define ABC, to help the readers accurately assess whether they are experiencing ABC to the fullest, and to determine what needs to be improved and strengthened in their present community experience.

Last week we said that we live in a culture that is longing for “community” because so many individuals come from broken or dysfunctional home situations. Even if you are a Christian that came from a healthy home you will naturally tend to enter into Christian Community with dreams and ideals of what it should be like.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be over­whelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Chris­tians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a com­munity the better for both. A community, which cannot bear and, cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse. Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a com­munity more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.” Life Together

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is simply saying that Christian Community is not perfect. Why? – Because it’s not composed of perfect people. The difference between Christian community and a non-Christian community is not the absence of problems but how they are dealt with.

Are you looking for perfect ABC? If so, get over the illusion. The reality is the gift of Christian community is still the best thing going.