Staying on Mission Through Community

“What is community?” is a natural question unfolding from the understanding of the emerging North American postmodern culture. Leonard Sweet states that “relationships are the ecology of God’s kingdom…In the modern era, people came to church and asked, ‘Who is God?’ But today, if people come to church at all, they ask, ‘Who are God’s people? How does Christianity cash out in community and practice?’”[1] Sweet is not alone in highlighting the relationship between community and ministry. Jimmy Long writes, “The key theological concept in the building framework for ministry in the postmodern world is biblical community.”[2] Humanity has been created for community. This in not only evident in the creation narrative within Genesis regarding the relationship between man, woman, and God, but it is also accentuated in the ministry of Christ. Many times Jesus demonstrated a life of service and commitment to a small group of disciples in whom he poured out his life; creating a model of community for deep-spirited friends. Long mentions that Jesus portrayed a picture of community for his disciples both present and yet to come.[3] Within this cultural shift, the church can become an example within culture of a place that models authentic friendships and community. “The church has a surprising new mission: to establish a cultural space for the birth and supported practice of friendship.”[4] People who belong to such a community want to belong to it-they cannot imagine worthwhile life without it. Such a caring and consensual community is a place, a collection of relationships, where interdependence creates holistic environments, people of all capacities and fallibilities are incorporated, quick responses are possible, creativity is multiplied rather than channeled, individualized responses are characteristic, care is able to replace service “and active citizenship rather than passive client hood is made possible.[5] A healthy community can provide space for people to desire to belong as well as provide space for people to use their passions and gifts to serve on mission rather than simply expreience "passive" clienthood. I long for Journey to be one such community--A community modeling deep spirited friendships, caring for one another, and being on mission for the purpose of unfolding of God's dreams and desires within this world.



[1] Leonard Sweet, Out of the Question and Into the Mystery (Colorado Springs: Water Brook Press, 2004), 93.

[2]Jimmy Long, Generating Hope (Downer’s Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 1997), 84.

[3]Long, Generating Hope, 91.

[4]Rodney Clapp, A Peculiar People (Downer’s Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 1996), 205.

[5]Clapp, A Peculiar People, 247.