“In and through community lies the salvation of the world.” M. Scott Peck
The above statement is so true! The statement is made by M. Scott Peck in his book “The Different Drum.”
A teacher asked Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus answered by reminding the man of what he should already know, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
God exists in community. God desires to live in community with us all. In the above discussion Jesus outlines the basic characteristic of true community: Love. Love for God and love for our fellow person. People come to God through the community of faith as we express love and inclusion into the lives of those desiring true community.
Everyone needs community. People are dying for the opportunity to live in real, true, committed sharing of lives blended together. It is how God created us. We yearn for it. Everyone loves community. People will search until they find community.
Everyone fails in community. Yet, we strive on.
There is life changing power in the community of faith. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, a method of church discipline was to put one out of community for the sake of causing the person to change. Once repentance had taken place the one put out of community was welcomed back in. Of course this practice is meaningless, and really counter productive, unless one has experienced true community.
Small groups are the fertile field in which to grow the community of faith. To be a healthy community, though, there must be a balance of upreach (worship), inreach (ministry) and outreach (evangelism). Without this balance the community will become unhealty and will eventually die out. The opposite is true of the healthy community. A healthy community will grow and eventually birth a new group, thereby multiplying ministry. This will enable even more people to come in and experience intimacy with God and other people….thus the community grows!
