Does Biblical Community Happen When You Live Where Everyone Knows Your Name?

Last updated on: January 8, 2014 at 4:12 pm by Michelle Van Loon

Does Biblical Community Happen When You Live Where Everyone Knows Your Name? 2014-01-08T16:12:53-06:00 Michelle Van Loon

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Every time I walk past an American Legion building in a nearby town, there are always a couple of grizzled dudes hanging around outside. Sometimes they’re smoking. Other times, they’re tinkering under the hood of a 10-year old Buick or polishing a spit-shiny Goldwing. When I peer through the darkened windows of the place, I can see a handful of guys watching a game. Snatches of conversation punctuated by the occasional shouted instructions of the coaches hugging the barstools floats out of the door. The place has the feeling of a comfortable living room, and the guys who hang out there give me the impression many of them are like family to one another.

I envy those guys. These old soldiers have the common denominator of military service as a starting point for their relationships, and continue to have each other’s backs as they march into their golden years. A few days ago, I read Scott Emery’s post at the Missio Alliance blog where the young church planter considered his own endeavors:

Perhaps it is from the reading I’ve been doing. Perhaps it is from the community I’ve been attempting to cultivate. Perhaps it is from seeing pictures of my friends and family from yesteryear. Perhaps it was a simple contrast of a table of older friends with my younger family. But I wonder, what do we need to do to have a community that grows old together? What intentional decisions and sacrifices need to be made to move towards that end?

There are others asking these questions. They are minority voices in contemporary church culture, to be sure, but the upcoming book by Christopher Smith and John Pattison, the rooted example of poet Wendell Barry, and the countless leaders and church members who become family to one another by staying in the same congregation for decades – or generations – speaks a descant to the church experience of most of us.

When I’ve listened to Garrison Keillor spin his Lake Woebegone stories, or read Jan Karon’s Mitford series, I’ve been left with a feeling of nostalgia for a Cheers/Mayberry sort of connectedness. It’s the same sort of comradeship I see among the vets living out their days together at the American Legion. The writers and pastors who are trying to figure out how to cultivate bonded, life-long community are looking away from the modern Evangelical habits of programs and projects, which excel at fostering shallow acquaintanceships. They’re banking on the fact that living life rooted in one place over many years may be the real key to developing Biblical community.

During our nine years in Wisconsin, we experienced what it was like to live in a small-town sort of place where people tended to stay put for generations. There were beautiful strengths in this kind of rootedness – tradition, comfort, security, and familiarity. But the strengths were also liabilities. Even after nine years there, we were still treated as outsiders by many. The boundaries of those WI family tribes never stretched far enough to fully enfold “new people”; thus, it wasn’t really community for everyone. I observed that years of living in the same place, going to the same church, and hitting up the same place each week for Friday night fish fry with your cousins won’t create the kind of supernatural community described in Acts 4:32-35.

I admire the work of those asking these questions and trying to respond in new/old ways to the bowling alone isolation of modern life. To tell you the truth, I have a touch of envy about the kinds of questions they’re asking on behalf of those to whom they’re called, because we’ve never really been included in anyone’s longitudinal commitment to form and sustain a community. (A couple of key churches to which we belonged either imploded or split by dysfunction meant that the words of commitment we heard from leaders didn’t translate into long-term life together.)

But their questions leave me with a question of my own. What is the connection between long-term commitment to a place and people and the kind of community described in the early chapters of the book of Acts? I don’t know.

But I’d love to hear what you think, my friends.

Ecclesiology

Previous Post

January 2, 2014

Beer, Dr. Spock, And The Parenting Advice I Needed Most

Next Post

January 15, 2014 Review: The Rebbe's Army

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Baggage Books Calendar Church and Ministry CVID Ecclesiology Everyday Christian life Faith Falling Upward From The Margins Housing Jesus Movement's Unintended Consequences Midlife Midlife Survey #1 Midlife Survey #2 Moments and Days Out To The Margins Pilgrim's Road Trip Regret Seminary Spiritual Formation Uncategorized What's A Nice Jewish Grandmother Like You Doing In Seminary? When The Heart Waits Writing

Select a Month June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What famous garden did God place Adam and Eve in?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Bethel Gethsemane Sinai Eden