This is the second post in a four part series on spiritual growth. The first post was on Community, and the last two are on Discipleship and Worship.
How does one then repair their soul in community? Community is a huge word in Christian circles today. And with good reason: American Christianity had bitten into American individualism hook, line and sinker, and this re-orientation towards community is vitally necessary if we are to connect with the changing world around us. What is left out of the community conversation a lot is the participation part. I mean here participation in a deep, tangible and dramatic sense: tangibly and meaningfully doing life together. Community without participation is nothing more than a networking event. It’s about meeting people on the surface, taking what you need from the connection, and then moving on. Participation, in worship, in small group, in overlapping lives, demands trust and buy-in.
Many evangelical churches have done an excellent job re-orienting their church communities toward a deeper community life through small groups. These groups, when facilitated well, offer ample opportunity for the repairing of one’s soul as you become authentic and real with one another. A true community.
Then you go to church with all of these people and about five people do worship while the rest of the community sits there. Worship is not a place that provides participation in many churches. It is more like a networking event with God than participation in a tangible way with the God of the universe. (The easiest way to have tangible participation with the God of the Universe, our Savior and the Holy Spirit every Sunday?: have communion).
The opposite happens in mainline churches. We spent several months church hopping last year, trying to find a church community that we could bring our knowledge and skills to that would also build us up. And the trouble we were having in mainline churches when we visited mainline churches was that the worship was amazingly participatory—passing of the peace, confession, communion, responsive readings, etc.—and then that was it. There was no real community outside of the Sunday service. It was the opposite problem we had when visiting evangelical churches…. (thankfully, we found one with both).
No matter where you are at, if you want to be in a place that has a community defined by participation and doing life together, what you really need is holistic discipleship: worship and community life that is all focused on discipleship.