The Cultural Impact of Community
I’ve written recently on the need for churches to be actively involved in first loving one another and then serving the community. As I have, I’ve been meditating on just what a local church’s role in a given community is to be. It’s interesting that God, through Jeremiah in 29:7, commands the exiles to: “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
On one hand, churches are absolutely to be about the “practical” ministries of feeding the poor and clothing the naked (Matthew 25:31-40). But it’s interesting that Jesus says that one of the primary ways to live out the Christian life is first and foremost in love and service for fellow believers. He says in John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In other words, the world will see the way that we love and serve one another, ouf of self-sacrifice, considering one another as more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3) and bearing one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2, etc.) in unity (1 Corinthians 12:12-27, etc.) and they will know that we are Christ’s disciples!
Richard J. Mouw says in his book: He Shines In All That’s Fair: Culture and Common Grace that:
One of the most significant cultural tasks that the Christian community must perform in the world is simply to be a community - a fellowship of people who, in the patterns of their life together, serve as a sign of faithfulness in the larger world.
It seems so simple, yet so profound doesn’t it? We all know that we have that deep-seated desire to belong and to be loved. It is built-in to every person and it is the mandate of every Christian. As our society becomes increasingly isolated, what could be more powerful than to stand boldy as a community?
It’s interesting that as many churches look for clever marketing strategies and more and bigger gimmicks, what will truly draw people is what we should be doing all along: loving one another. We must, as Paul warns Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16, watch our teaching along with our lives, we cannot substitute friendly people for sound doctrine, but neither can we truly claim sound doctrine if we do not have loving people.
As the people of the local church begin to love one another as we truly ought, this will be noticed, for “a city on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14).
- Read He Shines In All That’s Fair: Culture and Common Grace by Richard J. Mouw
- Read The Hospitality Commands by Alexander Strauch
Posted in Christian Living, Culture, The Church
October 25th, 2006 at 8:32 am
How true! To know the best thing we can do, the largest ministry we can have on our community is to love one another. So disunity, bitterness,tears not just us apart, but the community as well. Thanks!
October 25th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Amen
October 29th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
It is difficult in the U.S., and really the modern world, because we are slipping to more and more individualism. We live as though the individual is god and neglect values of sacrifice, service, community, etc.
Really good post.