I think about community a lot and wonder what true Christian community looks like in our culture today.  How does it or should it differ from any other group of like minded people?  Sadly, too many times it doesn't.  As I understand my need for Christ more, I also seem to have a heightened desire for friendship and community.  For many years my understanding of that desire got stuffed down or written off to insecurity, or the idea that it's just not a necessary facet of living the Christian life.  I have a very individualistic mindset about my faith, as if it's just Jesus and me walking through life together.  Well, on one level, yes.  On another, Jesus calls us to commune together with Himself.  The Lord's Prayer beings with "Our Father..."  We are part of the "body" of Christ, which is made up of many members... a community that is made up of friends that didn't choose each other, but rather, were chosen by grace through faith in Christ.  Any other community comes together by a mutual interest in someone or something, like the Barney Fife club or NRA, (maybe not the best examples, but you get the idea).  When you are together you share stories or learn about the subject, but you typically don't stray from the main interest.  In Christian community Christ is the subject and we are connected by the shedding of His blood.  This takes us into a deeper realm of community, more like family.  In a family we lose privacy and everything is shared, you know and are known by others.  This is where it gets messy because we are called to delve deeper into every aspect of the lives of those within our community.  We are supposed to practice this kind of community.

As a family, Christian community can be either a heart-warming idea or a very terrifying one depending on what your biological family is like.  Many times it's both.  We are connected to them whether we like it or not, but we don't have to necessarily be friends and if we are friends its likely that we wouldn't have chosen their friendship had we not been in the same family.  In Christian community we are called to be friends with people we would not ordinarily choose as friends.  We are connected by the truth of Christ and also by His blood.  Family members take care of each other because they're family.  They forgive one another because they are family.  In Christian community we forgive because we have been forgiven by Christ, and all of our needs have been met in Christ.

This puts a fresh perspective on our earthly family and frees us to practice friendship and community with them out of our understanding of the gospel.  It also scratches the surface of what real community should be in our culture today.  We are called in Christ to a new family that will ultimately fulfill all of our needs for community and friendship.