Christian Foundations 8 - CommunityShembull

A DIVERSE COMMUNITY 

One of the chief challenges to community and greatest opportunities for community is diversity. If everyone in a community thinks the same way, has the same background and values the same things, then community is relatively simple. Probably shallower, but certainly easier. However, if people are hugely different, then this poses great challenges and problems in building community. Spare a thought for the early church. Talk about a diverse community. In the one church, there could be Jews and Gentiles (who had no respect for each other and very dissimilar values), slaves and free people (who had such differing status and experiences in life), men and women (who had distinctive roles in society) – all worshipping and sharing and eating together. Get your head around that. It would have been much easier to form separate sub-communities, but Paul would not have a bar of that. 

Read: 1 Corinthians 12:12-20

Journal

1. What is God saying to me? Which verse is most significant?

2. What would I like to discuss/explore further?

3. What do I need to do?

4. Why would God want us to build community with people who are different from us?

Reflect

Judging from the letters that make up a lot of the New Testament, this issue of diversity in the community of Christians was probably the number one challenge for the early church. People were thrown together in the church that would just never mix in society. A pastor friend had a similar experience in planting a church in the inner city. He said that it brought together conservative doctors, entrepreneurial business owners, bohemian hairdressers, and homeless vagrants. These people had so little in common. Well ramp that up a few notches and you have the early church. How on earth did they function as a community, let alone become God’s light and hope for the world?

Well, first they recognized that what they had in common was far more significant than their differences. They were the one body. They were all connected with Christ. They all had God’s Spirit in them. Jews and Gentiles. Slaves and free people. Men and women. There were no second-class citizens in this community. Their culture screamed that this could not be true. But the church listened to God, not culture. You will come across people in your community who see things very differently from you. Don’t be surprised. That is the church. Keep looking past these differences to see that you have Jesus in common. They are your brothers and sisters. You are one body.

Second, they saw that this diversity was actually a good thing, a God thing. As Paul explains, you do not want your body parts to all look and function the same. That would be most unhelpful. Lots of eyes all over your body might help you see well but you would have no hearing or smell. Christians with different perspectives and values are not a threat or problem, they are a help. So embrace those who are different from you and listen and learn from them. Maybe you “see” well, but you need some help with “hearing.” As our society splinters over politics and values and worldviews, the body of Christ displays unity and community.

Pray

Lord not everyone sees things my way and this frustrates me at times. I usually prefer to be with people who think and behave like me. I feel safest with that group. But your body is far broader and richer than me and my ideas and behaviors, and I am not going to grow well in my enclave. So challenge me and stretch me and push me out of my comfort zone so that I can grow and so that together with community will be richer and deeper and more Spirit-filled. 

Respond

Think of someone who is quite different from you. Write down one thing that you can learn from this person and thank God for them.