Real Community: Being Known By Others and Knowing Them Too!

“I believe that it is often easier to inspire Christian people to go overseas as ‘missionaries’ than it is to get them to welcome their neighbors into their lives.” –Jack Miller, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church

I had lunch recently with a good friend here in L.A. That statement is pretty important in and of itself because good friends are difficult to come by in large cities. As Vincent (played by Tom Cruise) said about Los Angeles in the film Collateral: “17 million people. This has got to be the fifth biggest economy in the world and nobody knows each other.”

It made my friend and I conclude that what the church primarily has to offer people is healthy community – a chance to get to know others and have them know you. I can attest that that these types of relationships are rare experiences. Some have ventured out before to be “known” and then were rejected. This tends to make people stay home from that point on, or keep his or her “relationships” at a safe distance so as to avoid more pain.

Here’s the rub for churches in our area, especially the ones who are trying to develop Christian community upon which they desire to build an effective ministry to the city. If you can’t get Christian people to see the importance of ‘beneath the surface’ relationships and sign up to experience them inside a church, how on earth would you ever convince someone outside of a church community to join in?

There are two parts to my thinking here. First, we as believers have to get past our fears of being “discovered” by others. Let’s settle right up front that you’re going to find out things about me and I’m going to find out things about you, and some of what we discover will make you and I want to run for our lives. But we won’t…because Jesus didn’t run from either of us. Because we know He loves us in spite of our brokenness, we’ll enter into our friendship with a commitment to do the same.

Secondly, let’s agree that Jesus has told us that it’s not all about us. You and I may not need friendships right now like someone else might, but Jesus commanded us to avail ourselves to the needs of others. Being part of Christian community isn’t supposed to be like going to a buffet restaurant – pick the things you want and ignore the things you don’t; be served all the time and complain about the quality of the wait staff. Mature Christianity is both enjoying the meal and serving as a waiter. On the days where you’re starving, you should expect to be served; on the days when you’re not needy, it’s time to suit up and care for others.

A small church like Prism doesn’t have bells and whistles and a mini-Noah’s Ark for the kids to play on (I hope we do one day…that would be cool). We can’t compete with the entertainment industry or the many exciting attractions in L.A. However, we do have each other and in a metropolitan area like ours that may be all it takes to reach people with the love of Jesus.

I pray that God’s grace would overwhelm us so we can help friends enjoy and honor Him more this week.

Pastor Chuck Ryor