Colossians 1:16,17 “All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Dallas Willard wrote: “The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with himself included in that community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.” Richard Foster commented on the above: “I believe that God is gathering just such a community in our day. It is a community that combines eschatology with social action, the transcendent Lordship of Jesus with the suffering servant Messiah. It is a community of cross and crown, of conflict and reconciliation, of courageous action and suffering love. It is a community empowered to attack evil in all its forms, overcoming it with good. It is a community of unselfish love, and witness without compromise. It is a community buoyed up by the vision of Christ’s everlasting rule, not only imminent on the horizon but already coming to birth in our midst.”
In our disconnected age, such a vision of community is very attractive. Meaning is found in community, not individualism. Hope is nurtured in relationship, not isolation. Yet it also provides an antidote to thinking such a community can live a separatist disengagement from society at large. We need to hear the challenge of a professor of theology: “We want none of your talk of forgiveness, we want to see a community where forgiving, accepting love is happening and changing personal behaviour.”
Are you part of such a community? It might be your church, but most churches are too big to really act as a committed community. Historically the spread of the church under persecution came when the ‘oikos’ (extended family of aunties, uncles, cousins, servants) moved together and embodied kingdom values. So a life-group or network of ten to twenty people committed to intentional relationships was beautifully effective and attractive to outsiders. Would you consider it?
Lord, I choose today to become more rooted in intentional community and more welcoming to outsiders. Amen!
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