What is Community?

For me personally, I saw this as an internship; something to add to the resume before Grad school. An internship with a mission organization looks pretty good to a Christian school right? Imagine my surprise when one of our first house meetings was about the Acts church and modeling after the community they shared.   A few people threw terms around like “choosing in” and “going there.” What does that even mean and look like? I mean, I didn’t even know these people and I am supposed to let them in, give them permission to call me out, challenge me and know me?   What a process this was of breaking me of my self-seeking and self focused attitude!  Even to realize how much this type of attitude was in me!  It was very humbling.  We all had to get on the same page, put our selfishness aside and choose into community and doing life together.

So where does that bring us to five months later? Well….there are now 12 of us and although our lives are not taped, I believe we are starting to see that it’s time to stop being polite and start getting real. It may get messy. You see, choosing into community doesn’t just mean going along with others for the sake of getting along, it means choosing to “go there” and taking a risk in exposing yourself to others even if it means that not everyone agrees and not everyone is comfortable.   This means asking for help, being vulnerable, and confronting/challenging others.  When you live with this many people day in and day out for this many months at a time, they become your support, family, the people you have to turn to and your mirrors when you need it.

This means that the selfish ways and pride have to be put aside and died to. It means saying that even though I am afraid of being an “inconvenience” with the things I’m going through or need to share, that I am going to go there because you matter and are worth it and  because this community matters and is worth it. How high is my safety and trust level to do this?  In the same respect it means that I will die to my selfish ways enough to be aware of and sensitive enough to my brother or sister when they have a need and in some cases I will need to “inconvenience” them by being asked what’s going on. It means taking the risk to walk alongside with and really be there for someone or to let someone really be there for you; realizing that they may or may not give anything in return….it’s just worth the risk, worth fighting for. How much do I always want it/fight for it?

It’s the same way with Christ. He gave Himself up for His beloved and expected nothing in return.  We were worth that much to Him. The way I see it is that if we are to be becoming more and more like Him all the time, isn’t this what we should be modeling and moving toward in our daily lives and interactions; especially in the context of community?  Slowly yet surely we are moving toward it….it won’t happen in a day, but it will happen with the Lord at the center of our community and not ourselves.