Compelling Presence in the Post-Christian CultureSample

Compelling Community vs. Spiritual Individualism

Next, Christians must pursue becoming life-giving communities of faith. As Carl Trueman has observed, “Loving communities are powerful and attractive. The LGBTQ+ movement has triumphed in part because of its tight-knit, well-organized, and mutually supportive community. If those who believe a lie can do so, should those who believe the truth not do as well, if not better?”

In our individualistic, digitized, and atomized culture, people crave belonging. For believers, this must include more than Sunday gatherings; it stretches into the rest of the week. By our love for one another, others will know that we are God’s people (John 13:35). It’s through the fellowship and community of the early Church that “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

The temptation in our cultural moment is to believe the lie that we can follow Jesus alone. Many have found the comforts of home and the complexities of embodied relationships reason enough to watch Church online rather than rooting ourselves in the Body of Christ. But the author of Hebrews warns us, “Do not neglect meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing” (10:25).

I love having access to quality content online from my favorite Christian teachers. But something happens in the Church gathering that can’t and doesn’t happen in a digital space. Lesslie Newbigin calls the Church a “hermeneutic of the gospel.” In the living presence of God’s gathered people, the message of Christ becomes understandable.

What is one step you can take today to go deeper into the Christian community?