About Me
- Joe Garrison
- Fishers, IN, United States
Director of Contemporary Worship and Assistant Director of Student Ministries at Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapols, IN. Husband,Guitarist,and Drummer
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Friday, April 23, 2010
Cliques or Christian Community?
5:48 AM | Posted by
Joe Garrison |
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I have been thinking about this since our meeting on Tuesday. We discussed what Christian community looks like and refferred to Acts 2:42-47. Verse 44 says, "All believers were together and had everything in common."
If you look at this with a quick glance it kind of sounds like a clique you would experience in high school. Just a bunch of people exactly alike huddling around each other talking about how cool their "sameness" is.
So is it ok for Christians to have "cliques," or groups of people gathered with "everything in common"? I think it is unavoidable and designed that way by God. God designed each of us with different interests, passions, talents and abilities. He did this so we would each be able to accomplish something different for his kingdom. We, as humans, naturally gravitate towards those people that are similar to ourselves.
Here is the difference...
In high school we gravitated to those that were similar to ourselves, but we purposely excluded those that were different and chose not to accept them. As Christians this should look different. While we naturally gravitate to those people with similar interests and passions as us, we have learned to LOVE and accept those that are different than us. We do not turn away "outsiders" and we learn to accept each person for who they are in Christ.
We will always naturally gravitate to people like us, that isn't going to change. I'm not sure we are made to be "best friends" with every single person on earth. Where we become the Body of Christ is when my community unites with your different community and becomes one big community. It is ok to have a smaller group of friends that are like you. Where being a Christian come in is when we take our little community and engage with someone elses little community to form the Body of Christ.
Think about the United States of America for example. As Indiana we do our thing, Florida does theirs, Nebraska theirs and California theres. We are all cool and unique in our own state communities. However, we are stronger and become a "super power" when we combine ourselves to be the UNITED States of America. Christianity is no different.
What we have to remember is; even though we may have nothing of this world in common with that other person's community, we all have Christ in common. As strong as we may feel in our tight knit small communities, we have the strength of the Body of Christ when we unite all of our communities together and nothing can beat that.
If you look at this with a quick glance it kind of sounds like a clique you would experience in high school. Just a bunch of people exactly alike huddling around each other talking about how cool their "sameness" is.
So is it ok for Christians to have "cliques," or groups of people gathered with "everything in common"? I think it is unavoidable and designed that way by God. God designed each of us with different interests, passions, talents and abilities. He did this so we would each be able to accomplish something different for his kingdom. We, as humans, naturally gravitate towards those people that are similar to ourselves.
Here is the difference...
In high school we gravitated to those that were similar to ourselves, but we purposely excluded those that were different and chose not to accept them. As Christians this should look different. While we naturally gravitate to those people with similar interests and passions as us, we have learned to LOVE and accept those that are different than us. We do not turn away "outsiders" and we learn to accept each person for who they are in Christ.
We will always naturally gravitate to people like us, that isn't going to change. I'm not sure we are made to be "best friends" with every single person on earth. Where we become the Body of Christ is when my community unites with your different community and becomes one big community. It is ok to have a smaller group of friends that are like you. Where being a Christian come in is when we take our little community and engage with someone elses little community to form the Body of Christ.
Think about the United States of America for example. As Indiana we do our thing, Florida does theirs, Nebraska theirs and California theres. We are all cool and unique in our own state communities. However, we are stronger and become a "super power" when we combine ourselves to be the UNITED States of America. Christianity is no different.
What we have to remember is; even though we may have nothing of this world in common with that other person's community, we all have Christ in common. As strong as we may feel in our tight knit small communities, we have the strength of the Body of Christ when we unite all of our communities together and nothing can beat that.
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4 comments:
The problem with cliques within a church is that it's hard for someone new that doesn't have connections to feel accepted. I don't think we should just gravitate with the people we gravitate too, because there are some odd people that get left out, maybe because they are socially awkward or what not. I'm not really sure what it SHOULD look like, I just think that cliques can be a problem. I mean, I can "love" everyone in the church, and still sit with my group and associate with them and hang out with the, leaving people without a strong connection feeling like an outsider. So, I still don't know how I feel about cliques within church, because I don't know if's really possible to not have them... just thoughts :p
Thanks for the Read and Comment Kyle! And congrats on being the first comment EVER on my new blog. You da man! haha.
A few thoughts...
So say you notice a new person at church "Steve". You are hangin with your crew and ask Steve to come over. Steve has NOTHING in common with you but is excited to hang with you for a bit and glad someone included him. Will Steve stay a part of your group forever? Or will he eventually, now that he is more comfortable in the church setting, slide over to another group of people that share more in common with him and that he might be able to make a deeper connection with?
Is it a bad thing or "unChristian" for him to leave your group for one that he shares more in common with? Is it possible that it is a good thing because now your crew has a connection with Steve's new crew through Steve?
Just some thoughts. "Cliques" always seem to throw Christians into an uproar, I'm wondering if maybe they are just more like small groups or smaller communities...
Great post! Love the insight. The comparison to states vs united states was perfect. As for groups, totally part of the deal. I attend a 5k plus member church, and we have literally hundreds of small groups for people to connect with each other in. The whole thing is designed to get like-minded people together, then send them out to do God's work as a united force. That is how Jesus drew it up for us, all we have to do is follow the plan!
TruIndependent,
I work at a church with 800-900ish that attend each week, obviously not as big as your church, but still big enough to make it hard to make close meaningful connections with everyone.
Thanks for the read and comment!
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