A new sit-com began on NBC this Fall called Community. If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it because it is hilarious! (Chevy Chase fan anyone?) The setting for the show is a local community college and it centers in on the lives of a handful of the college's eclectic students. This diverse group of students made up of different gender, age, race, and socioeconomic background all begin to build friendships with one another and form a rather awkward, yet comedic, yet beautiful community.When I was in college we had the word "community" beaten into our brains. Everything was about community. People wouldn't just go to dinner, they would go to "build community." People didn't go to play ultimate frisbee on Scott Field, they went to "build community." Attending chapel wasn't just about worshipping God, it was about "building community." I am overstating this a bit, but not too much. "Community" has been a major buzzword among evangelical Christians for several years now, but to be honest, all of this emphasis on community bothers me.
The reason is that I am afraid that the word "church" has become dirty just as the word "Christian" has (although to be fair "Christian" was a term of derision right from the outset.) As a result the more culturally-relevant of leaders have replaced Christian with Christ-follower, and now it seems we're replacing church with community. There are countless examples of communities of faith that exist or are being planted as "communities" rather than churches.
What is the difference? Is it just a matter of semantics or are we throwing the baby out with the bath water? The church is most certainly a community, but it also has a significant identity and function. I can gather a group of people together for chicken wings and a football game and a community is planted, but Jesus called us out to be the ecclesia (called out ones), the church, the mystical body of Christ, to be heralds of the good news of the true king, and not even the gates of Hell can prevail against us.
I guess what I am saying is that I get why so many leaders favor community over church, but for now I'm sticking with church, with all of the term's baggage, blemishes, and bad press, because church reminds me of the magnitude of the community to which I have been called to belong and form. For those who favor community, is it semantics or are there some theological underpinnings for this preference? Would love to hear some thoughts.
