No one left behind
Filed Under (Church) by Paul Bankson on 07-08-2008

My wife, Connie, found an intriguing article entitled “Building Christian Community” on the internet (this is not an endorsement of all that is on that site).  The article speaks of the tendency for Christians to build community around affinity groups that they might have outside the church- in the author’s case, the educational environment they have chosen.  Marlin Detweiler writes:

The other ditch is when we begin to substitute the role of the school or our educational environment (such as our homeschool) for the church. Recently, I have heard far too many folks suggesting overtly and sometimes not as consciously or intentionally that the community we seek to build will be or should be centered around the school or homeschool association.

This thinking, subtle or otherwise, is riddled with great problems. Where do childless couples fit? How about empty-nesters?

My involvements in education have been more extensive than I ever dreamed or imagined they would be as recently as 15 years ago. Yet I don’t ever want to presume that this educational world, as close and consuming for a family as it may be, can in any way or at any time supplant the role of the organization given to build Christian community—the Church.

It is by the grace of God and through His ordained means that we find the Church to fill the role of building Christian community. In doing so we find that no age group, no stage in life, no childless couple and no single adult is functionally or otherwise left out of the communities we hope and should seek to build.

Wow.  The author nails it.  The Church is THE God-given means for building relationships and community.  If we’re not careful we end up leaving those that don’t fit our mold outside the loop and left behind.  The Church is to be comprised of all kinds of people, all races, all backgrounds, all marital status- and all need the body of Christ.   It may not be an educational environment, it could be sports teams our kids are on or a myriad of other organizations vying for our time and attention.  Let us not neglect the Church- the God given means for true community centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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Comments:
5 Comments posted on "No one left behind"
Ed Eubanks on August 7th, 2008 at 9:40 pm #

Nailed it, indeed. But I think we often step onto this slippery slope when we begin to venture afield of the marks of the church as the core identity of the church.

This brings to mind the suggestion from Chuck Warnock that we redefine “church” not by the corporate worship offered by a congregation but as the acts of ministry done during the time between worship services. (Knowing you’re a White Horse Inn listener, you’ll recognize the recent stuff they took on from Barna as latent in those ideas.)

Are these ideas connected? That is, the over-focus on a niche and the “coming redefinition of church”?


Paul Bankson on August 8th, 2008 at 6:35 am #

Excellent question, Ed. I’m not familiar with Chuck Warnock (though I’ll check out the link you provide). That sounds like a move to minimize the Church to one aspect of her existence and as you say take us away from the core identity. Well put.


Ryan on August 8th, 2008 at 9:07 am #

I think that the core idea is sound, but what individual churches need to be conscious of is the tendancy of people to gravitate towards like-minded and like-looking groups. There are far too great divides that churches have allowed themselves through theologies that don’t matter and worship styles that are “wrong.” Reaching out here is key, so that we should have a diverse community within our churches, as it is in schools.


JH on August 8th, 2008 at 4:23 pm #

this is one reason why we need more shooting parties. Whens the next one?


Paul Bankson on August 9th, 2008 at 2:00 pm #

I’m all for the next one- pick a date and let’s do it!


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