broken community
How do we mend a community of broken individuals together... and keep relationships honest?
Clarity:
By 'broken', I mean people that are sinful, downtrodden individuals that can't express their sinfullness and downtroddedness in a church they're already in (much like we've talked about in previous posts). Apparently it seems like an impossibility to step into a community (say, the congregation at the church down the street), stand up and say, "I'm gay." I would face rejections, criticism, or I'd be asked to leave. We actually had an incident similar to this happen at my church MANY years ago. The church lost an amazing child of God to the world. She was rejected, criticized and asked to come back after she had thought long and hard about the wrong and sinful choice that she made. She wasn't loved. At all.
What I'm asking is, how can we (as sinful people in a "righteous" community, such as our church congregations that "have it together") come together?
We face nonchristian behavior, in many established communities (churches), when we're too honest about our failures. My question is: how do we redeem this in a congregation that's been established for, say, 30 years? Is it even possible? Or must we start from scratch?
Clarity:
By 'broken', I mean people that are sinful, downtrodden individuals that can't express their sinfullness and downtroddedness in a church they're already in (much like we've talked about in previous posts). Apparently it seems like an impossibility to step into a community (say, the congregation at the church down the street), stand up and say, "I'm gay." I would face rejections, criticism, or I'd be asked to leave. We actually had an incident similar to this happen at my church MANY years ago. The church lost an amazing child of God to the world. She was rejected, criticized and asked to come back after she had thought long and hard about the wrong and sinful choice that she made. She wasn't loved. At all.
What I'm asking is, how can we (as sinful people in a "righteous" community, such as our church congregations that "have it together") come together?
We face nonchristian behavior, in many established communities (churches), when we're too honest about our failures. My question is: how do we redeem this in a congregation that's been established for, say, 30 years? Is it even possible? Or must we start from scratch?
posted by Matthew Snyder at 5:17 PM
3 Comments:
two questions for you:
1. What breaks community?
2. What binds those persons within a community? Or, what is the basis of community?
two questions for me:
1. What do you mean by 'community of broken individuals'?
2. What do you mean in 'keep relationships honest'? as in accountability?
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I think I need you to unpack those words a little more for me to understand better what you mean, but here goes...
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People naturally will associate with those who share some common interest, ideal, background, culture, etc. So, to bring people together you have to create a sense of shared meaning among those people (we do it all the time- Christ, John Piper, skin color, gender, etc.- we create community based on commonality. Community can even 'magically' appear between two individuals who discover a commonality, such as John Piper).
I'm gonna skip a few steps, but I'm sure you'll all follow.
Is Imago Dei strong enough to create community? Yes, it is. Then, how do we sustain that community? By cultivating the truth of Imago Dei in community.
Again, I'm slightly lost on exactly what your asking- those are some big words. This is what popped into my head, and got pooped out, though.
in that, I would say that sometimes ears are just deaf, or minds numbed in rote ritualism and emptyness. sometimes. sometimes, we will speak the name of Christ to those who cannot hear it, or do not know Him and will not understand our words. Whether our words are heard or not, always we stand up and speak truth. Always we love and obey our dear Jesus. And if we are asked to leave, if they uninvite you for your truth, then they uninvite Christ from their presence. Then we pray, and hope in Christ.
Peace to you, and humility in Christ.
Two good sources come to mind: the first essay in "Weight of Glory," called...The weight of glory by C.S. Lewis. Also incarnational theology begs the question, "what if we actually understood the world in terms of being effectivly reconciled to God?" I'll do more on this later.
-developing a Jacob-esque limp, Mike-
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