Community is Necessary

*It's Day 9 of the 31 Day Writing Challenge, which is why I'm still talking about intentional community. (-; If you're interested in reading previous posts and maybe even following along for the rest of the series, check that out here: 31 Days of Intentional Community *

A few years ago, we lived on Lookout Mountain in a tiny little house that we loved, despite the lack of a dishwasher (and by that I mean a non-human version) and the occasional scorpion that I will never be able to forget. Ever.


We went to a church that met in a big, beautiful barn on the back of the mountain and we made friends who welcomed us into their community from the moment we showed up.


Just down the road from our house was Covenant College, which was full of some pretty exceptional students, many of whom we got to know and invited into our little home. One of those was a senior at Covenant named Hannah. She and I would meet once a week and talk about a book we were reading over mugs of hot tea. One semester we discussed a chapter a week of Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a twentieth century theologian. If you haven't read it and you're interested in Christian community, I'd suggest clicking over to Amazon right this minute. It's a relatively easy read and absolutely worth your time.

Life Together is essentially Bonhoeffer's thoughts
on the basic elements of Christian community and what those can and perhaps should look like.

You probably know this already, but Bonhoeffer experienced Christian community, at least as an adult, in the shadow of the Nazi regime in Germany before and during the war. His opposition of the Nazi's treatment of the Jews eventually resulted in his being executed at the end of the war, only weeks before the concentration camp where he had been held was liberated.

I point all this out because I think it's important to understand where Bonhoeffer was coming from when he wrote the quote below. I would imagine, in light of his circumstances, his evaluation of Christian community probably would have had more of a sense of absolute spiritual necessity about it. And I'm sure he also understood it to be something that could possibly be taken away at any moment.

Page six of Life Together includes this quote: "It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren."

I can tend to think of community so casually and, at different seasons of my life, even think of it as negotiable. But, if we see it for what it really is, essentially a life-line in the trenches of a very real battle for our hearts and minds, we would likely be less inclined to put it off or take it for granted. More than just a comfortable group of friends to spend time with, Christian community is, very literally, necessary for our spiritual health.

The privilege of having community with people who love Jesus and who also love us is all grace. I wonder if we would value it differently and commit to it with more vigor if we could see it through the same lens as Bonhoeffer must have.

It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing." Life Together, page 3.

It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing." (p. 3) - See more at: http://chrishall.org/post/75130995975/20-quotes-from-life-together-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer#sthash.PWhVJL3a.dpuf

"It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren." (p. 6) - See more at: http://chrishall.org/post/75130995975/20-quotes-from-life-together-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer#sthash.PWhVJL3a.dpuf

"It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren." (p. 6) - See more at: http://chrishall.org/post/75130995975/20-quotes-from-life-together-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer#sthash.PWhVJL3a.dpuf