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
Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts
Friday, April 23, 2010
Cliques or Christian Community?
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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