"Many congregations are promoting "community" among their members, which usually means small sharing groups or mission teams -- both good things. But there is an existential difference between thin and thick community.
Thin community is when you go to church rather than be the Church concretely in your own neighborhood. It is when you go somewhere else to do mission work. If community is a place you have to get into a car and drive to, then you might be giving the world of individualism, hypermobility, and consumer-based choices more power in your life than the Church.
Thick community is living within easy walking distance of other members, which is essential to sustaining a daily shared life. If we are not willing to put where we live on the altar, this thin "sense of community" will have little power to transform our lives or our world. Like logs stacked together for a campfire, intentional community brings us together so that spontaneous things can happen, so the Holy Spirit can light a sustaining flame."
- excerpt from The Intentional Christian Community Handbook: For Idealists, Hypocrites and Wannabe Disciples of Jesus by David Janzen
No comments:
Post a Comment