An Extraordinary Community #church 03

When Jesus established his Church, he wanted it to be an extraordinary community.  

He wanted his Church to be a place where when people would come and see it and say, “Wow! What an extraordinary community!  I want to be a part of this!”  Jesus wants his Church to show people what life in his kingdom looks like, a place where you can find authentic spiritual community that’s rooted and established in God’s love.  

Take a look at what the Apostle Paul says to the church in Colossians 3:11-17:

Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Think about that kind of community that Paul is describing here.  You walk into a church building and you’re welcomed just as you are.  You get the sense that the normal push and pull of power, position, economics, and politics don’t apply to this community.  You see that at the center of the community is this white-hot ball of fire that’s their manifest love for Jesus.

As you get to know the people of this community, you feel their compassion. They’re kind. They don’t think they’re better than you.  They speak with a gentle love, and they’re patient with you - giving you space to figure things out and get to know them.  When you fall on hard times, they come alongside you, put their arm around you, and help you bear the weight of it so you can make it through.  When someone IS unkind or hurtful, they’re quick to speak to it and to ask for, give, and receive forgiveness.  Over all of this is a sense of God’s genuine lavish love for you and everyone else.

They’re a peaceful community - slow to conflict and thoughtful about their words.  They celebrate with an infectious thankfulness for all that God has given them. They honor the Bible and demonstrate the gospel of Jesus to one another and to anyone they meet.  When someone does do something to hurt someone or the community, they speak words of love, inviting the person to make things right.  They sing with hearts that overflow with gratitude for all that God has done for them.  Their love for God and one another is expressed through a stunning thankfulness in all things.

THAT’S an extraordinary community.  That’s a community I’d like to be a part of.  That’s what Jesus intended when he created his Church.  When people saw the Church being the Church, they wanted to know more about it and it drew them in closer to Jesus.  What a powerful picture!

But for so many people, they have unlovely experiences with Jesus’ Church.   They come visit a local church community, and they experience the same infighting, power-plays, politics, and hidden agendas that they experience everywhere else in the world.  They read blogs where self-proclaimed watchdogs publicly smear and shame fellow followers of Jesus in front of the whole world.  They see church communities blowing up as the leaders stage rebellions and takeovers instead of working through their differences in a godly way.  These people walk away from Jesus’ Church saying, "There’s nothing different about that community, and if I want THAT kind of drama, I’ll just go to Thanksgiving with my dysfunctional family this year."

This is not the extraordinary community Jesus envisioned.

If Jesus’ Church is supposed to be the place where God’s love is experienced, then what’s going on here?

This post is an introduction to a series of posts about Jesus' Church that I'll be publishing over the next month or so.  Here's an overview of where we're headed:

Traits Of Jesus' Extraordinary Community

The Litmus Test, after which this blog is named, is the first and most important concept.  What do we believe Jesus' Church is all about?  This is an important question that each one of us needs to answer in our own hearts.  You can read the original post, and I'll be revisiting it again here in the near future.

Jesus' Church is where we learn to love like Jesus loves. This is a big part of what we see in Paul's picture of the Church. Granted, none of us has God's perfect love, but, what might it look like for us be a community that understands that learning to love is a central part of being Jesus' Church?

Jesus' Church is a place of welcome.  This extraordinary community is inclusive and welcomes people from all walks of life.  As modeled by Jesus himself, his Church welcomes the sinners, traitors, prostitutes, atheists, agnostics, and, yes, even the self-righteous religious folk, to be part of the community where we're learning to love.  What does this look like in the 21st century?

Finally, Jesus' Church is a community, not an individual. We need each other. Jesus made us to be a people, not a person. The personal transformation we experience is meant to be shared and experienced with others, both inside and outside the church community.

What has been your experience of Jesus' Church?

When have you seen Jesus' Church being an extraordinary community?

How have you been a part of making Jesus' Church extraordinary?

Keep an eye for these posts in this series in the near future.