Community-Communitas

This is another spin off blog from an earlier post entitled "Keepers". In that blog piece, I extricated five eternally valuable truths and concepts that the Institutional Church provided and taught me for nearly 4 decades. As I mentioned previously...this was to be an exercise for me in positive thinking and gratitude...maybe that's why it was a challenge right out of the gate? Ha.

That said...there were complications, in my mind, with each of my particular spiritual ‘finds’. In my earlier blog, I referred to those things as “caveats", or ‘red-flags’ I suppose. While not insurmountable issues, I think they are worth honest examination. AND...before I go any further... I think it’s also important for me to acknowledge that my epiphany in this regard, is not an indictment entirely against the church...but also a confession of my own ignorance and the realization that maybe the evangelical mega church environment wasn’t the most healthy for me...I am certain that scads of people follow similar spiritual paths with completely different experiences, culminating in more positive and life-giving results.

Anyhow...moving on!

Beyond meeting Jesus in and through the traditional church...I also inherited a strong sense of commitment to my church family which went far beyond simple surface interactions common at Sunday morning worship services. Twenty-three plus years attending 'one single church' was probably the most valuable experience I had in learning to relate to and be committed to a community of faith in good times and bad. In my humble opinion, commitment to intimate ( aka messy ) relationships with one another...almost anywhere in our society...is a 'lost art'. Our Christian culture is no different than secular America, so consumer driven, that it is uncommon for people to stay in a job, neighborhood or church for more than a few years before becoming bored or offended and walking away.

Like other Mega churches of the 80's and 90's, the Mega church I attended during those years became rather proactive in developing small group fellowships. Leadership began to recognized that despite offering engaging worship services and a smorgasbord of weekly programming...people weren’t connecting to other people and simply didn’t stick around for long...The front door of the building was open but the 'figurative' back door never seemed to close either...in response, a huge internal movement of 'community' became the church's primary vision and a cultural catch-phrase.

My sense of spiritual community certainly began to develop during a church initiated ‘community-revival’...but not without many disappointing and unfortunate experiences along the way. In fact, I noticed rather quickly, as others did, that home-groups or life-groups that attempted to connect people via proximal suburban demographics, with only our 'home' church in common, were barely viable after a few months...as were the communities formed out of a sense of duty or obligation to the church mission statement or membership requirements. Both of these common scenarios felt forced and creepy...and at times ended badly. People would bail out, leaving others feeling abandoned; or commence fighting over complicated subjects like politics and theology which often led to angry allegations. It wouldn't be long before people were leaving the group or church pissed off, ironically, with severed or damaged relationships in their wake.

Over the years and especially as a young married and new parent...I quickly learned to crave and place a very high priority on a personal practice of faith based community out of my intrinsic need for support and camaraderie. The Small groups I experienced birthed from organic relationships, unique seasons of life or life crisis...seemed to have the most longevity and 'people' retention...but they were all too often ingrown and closed to outsiders or new people. Parenting, marriage and recovery groups offered environments with an almost instant sense of like-minded connectedness...but...were breeding grounds for elitism, exclusivity and even dysfunction. Even though I was a committed member in a few of these 'life-groups'...that kind of community was always a turn off to me. Author Michael Frost, in his book 'Exiles', remarked that communities like these are an end in themselves...rather than a means to an end.

Eventually I began to question the value of life-group communities. On the one hand I knew I needed intimacy and connectedness with the people of God that I couldn't get at a weekend church experience...but...at the same time I was growing tired of the myopic focus of these types of groups as well. One of the last groups I attended...studied the book of James at least 3 times in a year and a half. No kidding. I suppose not surprisingly, life-groups often took on the distinct personalities of the 'leaders'. The more melancholy, pious and self censoring, incessantly focusing on "sin in the camp"...while the more sanguine fun lovers...avoiding spiritual depth all together. Interestingly, I began to recognize that the only time I felt truly alive and connected in any small group after awhile, was during outward focused service projects and missional living.

It was only after leaving the Institutional church behind...that I encountered a different kind of community...identified by those who study these things as Communitas. Communitas may have many of the same characteristics as a community...( discipleship, encouragement, safety etc) with a few very important nuances. Rather than community for community sake to satisfy a requirement or need for personal support...

"Communitas is a community infused with a grand sense of purpose; a purpose that lies outside of its current internal reality and Constitution. It's the kind of community that 'happens' to people in actual pursuit of a common vision of what 'could be'. It involves movement and it describes the experience of togetherness that only really happens among a group of people actually engaging in a mission outside itself." ~ Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways

I never even considered leaving community behind when I left the I.C I knew going it alone was not an option. In fact...prior to turning the page on that chapter of my life...I had already began to invest in a small group of people...self imposed exiles...attempting to live as authentic followers of Jesus outside the traditional institutionalized expression of Christianity. We shared common experiences and familiar dreams of what the body of Christ could really be and do in the world today. For many...like me...emotions were raw and spilled out...others who had already blazed this liminal(transitional state) offered encouragement and hope that sustained me through darker days.

Today in my communitas we dialogue and wrestle with concepts and theology we were never able to in our past lives...we talk and eat and drink great home-brewed beer! We attempt to experience new spiritual practice we may have formerly avoided or abandoned. Rather than emphatically confess concrete spiritual opinions we confess we don't know half of what we once thought we did and we don't need to have all the answers. We know we undeniably need each other and we do not exist to serve ourselves...but to live as the hands, feet and pocketbook of Jesus Christ...taking every opportunity to be the church.

I am not at all where I thought I'd be once upon a time...but I freely admit...I wouldn't go back to where I came from or reestablish any of the pseudo-communities of my past. It's true that it's way harder out here...not something that can easily be grasped, at least for me...Old habits and expectations are hard to let go of. A few old friends aren't sure if I've lost my salvation...and let me know it. However, I believe my current experiences have been and will continue to be transformative as I attempt to live a life as a Follower of Jesus.