Community and Relationships
- Barney
Community Church Harlesden’s list of values states that we ‘value relationships as the foundation of all that we do together’. I’m going to have a brief look at what this statement might mean and why we say it.
The essence of church is not the building, the doctrine, or the leadership structure. These things have their proper place, and may be important, but they are not church by themselves. The essence of church is relationships between its members that have Jesus as their focus and centre.
Relationships are vital to church because love is the thing we were created for; to love God and to love each other. Love is the highest and holiest virtue and is central to God’s character. Relationships are the medium of love just as water is the medium of waves. If love is central, then that means relationships are central. Everything else gains meaning because of relationships. Morality, justice, renewal and restoration are things we strive for because of God’s love for human beings.
The Bible speaks richly of God’s love and our responsibility to love. For example, in Colossians Paul says ‘above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony’. In 1 John we are told, ‘beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God’.
God created us in his image; to be like him, with the capacity to love and have relationships. In the same way, a community represents the ‘Trinitarian’ character of God. The Trinity is a mystery, but one of its meanings is that the heart of God is a community, a society. An individual cannot represent a complete image of God, which is why God gives us to one another as community. In the beginning, God said ‘it is not good for man to be alone’, and it has always been so.
Community relationships are also important for our Christian growth. Accountability, honesty and humility come out of relationships. It is sometimes hard to be in a close knit group of people. Sharing concerns or worries with people is difficult because they may give me advice I don’t want to hear. I may be forced to change my lifestyle to accommodate the wisdom that they have given me. Community changes things about me that need to be changed but that I would not change by myself. Community helps to knock imperfections out of our character and teaches us love the hard way.
The importance of relationships is one reason many people in our church have chosen to share life by living in houses together. It means that we see each other every day, not just in the church meeting. In a meeting we can easily pretend that we are fine and stop people from getting too close to us or finding out who we really are. When we live together, or close to each other, this isn’t possible. Living in community is sometimes hard, but as a church we find that it is one powerful way to help us better demonstrate God’s image to other people.