MY PERSONAL SEARCH FOR COMMUNITY

There is a sense of community built into the human heart. There are various manifestations of community all around us; family, neighborhoods, churches, clubs, teams, hippy communes, intentional communities gathered around shared interests, and so on.  It is a commonly accepted idea that “no man is an island” and human beings are not meant to be alone in this life; so we pursue and manufacture communities to be a part of.  I have had experiences with many kinds of communities, good experiences and bad experiences.  At this point in my life I live alone by choice and for now it works well for me.

One of the problems I have experienced in communities, especially religious communities is that the very act of organizing into a community will leave some people on the outside.  There are barriers erected to protect the people and the principles of the community, often casting a shadow upon those who are outside those barriers.  I have had the experience of not being invited inside, even though I was willing and wanting to live by the rules of their created community.  I have had the experience of being expelled and excommunicated from the community for questioning the rules they were adding on after the initial rules were agreed to.  Not being accepted and being thrown out for questioning were devastating, discouraging, and disappointing.  After awhile I simply gave up and went out on my own; but not for long.

God led me back to the time when I made a decision to walk with Him.  At that point in time I simply read the Bible and sat listening to Him.  I was very alone when He revealed Himself to me, the time I now claim as my ‘born again’ experience.  For awhile it was just me and God, walking through the Bible, the Spirit teaching me and reminding me of things I had heard for many years in my youth, stories about the people of God long ago and stories about Jesus and the things he lived and taught.  After many months I started exploring, looking for other people who had this same experience.  One by one I found them; some in churches I would visit, some in small groups such as Young Life, some friends I had, and some I would randomly bump into along the way.

The first little community I became a part of was a home Bible Study Fellowship that met at the McLaren’s house.  We met one night a week and gathered to sing, share Scriptures, prayers, and fellowship with one another.  We went on Retreats and simply enjoyed one another’s company; the group was open to all who wanted to come.  This Fellowship fulfilled my need for community for many years and I am still in contact with some of these people even after nearly forty years have passed by. The second little community I became apart of was a weekly evening of praise, worship, and teaching called TAG, that met in a rented church in DC. 

Both of these groups were “free range” and invited all to come and be apart of what was happening.  For some reason both of these groups felt the need to organize and become churches in the manner of churches that had been going on for centuries.  But for me the sweet organic move of the Spirit I found in both of them became organized and manipulated; things became more inclusive and rules were made that excluded people from being apart of the ministry within the group or, in the second, even the group itself. It was the second group that I became a ‘member’ of that eventually became more cultish and I was excommunicated from.  I tried to find a replacement to meet my need for community, but failed.  That is when God led me back to Himself, provided a safe place for healing and restoration, and that is where I remained to this day.  There are things I miss about community but not enough to give up what I have now.  Many folks would say I am out of line with the Scriptures by not being a member of an institutional church.  If that is true I keep waiting for God to affirm that; so far He hasn’t. He assures me I am a part of the Spiritual Church that He administers, and that is enough for me right now.

Right now God meets my need of community in two ways.  The one crucial way is His revelation of His communion with me and my relationship to the Community of the Trinity that has existed since before time.  He speaks to me the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples the last time he was with them before he was crucified.  “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love her, and we will come to her and make our dwelling with her” (John 14:23). “The Spirit of Truth will remain with you, and will be in you, teaching you everything and remind you of all I told you” (John 14:17).

The second way is He brings people along the path I am walking and into my life, to meet with me and talk with me, soul to soul and spirit to spirit.  I recognize these folks and they recognize me from a realm beyond walls and labels.  “Where two or three are gathered, I am in their midst”.

I am in community; a Community of God and a community of His saints, past and present.  This is a community that invites all to “Come”; a community that welcomes questions and answers those questions with only Truth; a community that is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, an end that is eternal.  “Let the Spirit say Come; let the hearer say Come.  Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receives the gift of life-giving water” (Revelation 22:17).