Part deux

Once again, this is part II of the article by cameron conant in the newest Relevant magazine!

"The first person I thought of was Ben Irwin, a 29-year-old editor and seminary graduate who attends Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich. -- one of America's most progressive evangelical churches. Ben resembles his church -- full of interesting thoughts on theology and life -- and as an editorial director for a publishing company, his circle of contacts includes many provocative writers and pastors.

"What is community?" I asked Ben. The question was ironic; when my wife left more than a year and a half ago, Ben became a close confidant, a crucial part of my support system.

'My mind first goes to what it's not,' Ben said. 'I think we've thought that community is getting a bunch of strangers together in a small group to share their deepest, darkest secrets rather than a group of people who are on some level experiencing life together."

'People who are collectively experiencing life together.' I liked his definition and thought that it provided a solid definition for the article.

'It's funny. I'm pretty outgoing and yet I fear community,' I said. 'For example, the people at my church are wonderful, but I still have trouble entering into their lives and letting them into mine.'

'I think it's hard because it's so foreign to everything we know,' Ben said. 'Our whole worldview is oriented around awareness to self...but there was a time when self wasn't the starting point. It wasn't the reality.'

it was a brilliant point -- the difference between Western and Eastern thought; the fact that our Western culture, with its emphasis on self -- and in American thought, on "rugged individualism" -- is very different than the Eastern way of thinking, the sort of thinking that we see time and time again in the Bible.

'There once wasn't a sense of an individual apart from the community,' Ben said. 'Look at Paul's description of the Church as a body -- not each person as a body, but each person as a part of the body. When one part rejoices, the whole body rejoices; when one part suffers, the whole body suffers. We don't know what that's like. It's not second nature for us, and it takes more than signing up for a small group to make it second nature.'

I have joined small groups in the past, usually to see them fizzle out or to see my interest -- along with my attendance -- wane. I've started attending a mainline, liturgical church. There, I've joined a "Supper Club." The gatherings involve a dozen people eating dinner in someone's home. There is no book to work through, no Scripture reading required, nothing. People just talk and eat. It's as low pressure as you can get, yet I've still missed the dinners several times. I'm still hesitant to commit, hesitant to get to know people and include them in my life.

I am the rugged American individualist."

okay...that's it for part deux 'cause my wrists are killing me, but stay tuned for next time when we'll finish the article!
peace out!