Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Church or Community

I realize that the church should be a community, but after a lengthy conversation with someone very removed from the situation I have come to the conclusion that our church is not a community. We are a bunch of ppl that like the idea of community in theroy, but we would just die if it were put into practice. If we acctually practiced community we would have to talk to ppl outside our own little worlds... we would have to make an effort to get to know ppl that we don't even really like... we would have to go out of our way to do nice things for ppl... we might even see some of these ppl more than just one day a week for an hour or so... man it would be hard.... Don't get me wrong some of us try to do this.... there are a few of us that try to meet up several times a week just to hang out and share our lives with each other... but for the most part our church lacks greatly in community... for the most part we could care less about the ppl that are in our building on Sundays.... and for the most part we all want to live in our own little worlds and only come in to contact with each other on Sundays.... the one exception that comes to mind is our girly group that meets on Tuesdays (but not this week because I am being antisocal and the others decided to cancel this week) We meet on Tuesdays and we get together at other random times also... but it still seems somewhat exclusive... we have tried to get others to come, but they don't... I guess they just don't like us... maybe they think that we are weird or something.... I mean no one wants to live in community with weird ppl, right?

so my question is how do you do it? I mean it is human nature to cling to the ppl you are comfortable and farmilar with, so how on earth do you get past that? how do you form a real community with a whole church full of different ppl? can it be done? I am sure it can, I hear about it being done all over the place... But how do we make it happen? how do we do it here in Pearl, MS? how do we get away from having cliques in our churchs? how do we get away from being a large group of seemingly exclusive clubs that come together one day a week? the reason I think that we are a church full of cliques and exclusive clubs is because I have been told that our leadership team is a clique and has to be that way!!!! does it really? why can't the leadership of a church just be ppl that are gifted in leading, and not a group of the cool, most holy, ppl in the church?

as you can tell I still have alot of questions... I don't have many answers at all... I hope to visit some of the churches that are doing community right in the near future... I want to figure this out... It has been bothering me alot more than usual lately.... sorry to bother those of you who don't care about this stuff...

3 comments:

Jedi Master Deba Sing said...

Would you like to start visiting other churches on Sunday mornings? I would be more than willing to go with you, because I have also found our church lacking in this.

mistic_mommy said...

see I would like to do that, but right now I feel that God is telling me to stay put. and I don't want a traditional church, or even a comtemparariy church, I want.... something more than just church... I just haven't figured out what or how to get it... maybe I should visit other churches... maybe I would find it...

Amy (ArtsyBookishGal) said...

Wow, Lisa, I had no idea this was going on in your church. I guess life isn't all rubber duckies and gnomes. There are so many people coming to the realization that the church is falling very short of what it's supposed to be and we're gonna change it. I mean, not everyone and not entirely...the church will always be beautiful, but beautifully flawed.