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What we do: community

It was difficult to decide whether to talk about "community" under "What we are..." or "What we do...". We finally decided to address the question of what we mean by a "spiritual community" under what we do, because the early church associated community (koinonia was the word they used) with the classic Jewish concept of "walking" - i.e. a life practice. We are part of the family of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, and many other things that are shared in common with all other followers of Jesus. Community is something we strive to practice or "do".

The word “community” can raise many different associations:
communication… community service… communes…

There are several elements to what we mean when we call ourselves a “community”:

• a commitment to mutual accountability and living in the Light, i.e. transparency and honesty in all our relationships; a readiness to forgive where we hurt and wound one another (this is inevitable: we are all “sons of Adam” and “daughters of Eve”) and a willingness to help each other when one member is struggling with a load too heavy for them to manage alone.

• a structure to our life together; these are the elements of our common life that repeat themselves. Life in today's society has lost its "rhythm"; one task of Christian community is to restore a sense of rhythm: daily (common prayer times; time of personal meditation); weekly (worship and communion, sharing as a team); seasonal (the great redemptive festivals of Advent, Christmas, Easter, and more).

• clear boundaries and personal responsibility in the midst of community; each individual or family is free and responsible to structure their own life; we do not, for instance, share a common purse - each individual or family is responsible for their own finances (this doesn’t mean we don’t help each other out!)

Why "community"? >>>

 

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"God is light; in him there is no darkness
at all. If we claim to have fellowship with
him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do
not live by (lit. 'do') the truth. But if we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship (koinonia) with one
another, and the blood of Jesus, his son,
purifies us from all sin."

1. John 1:5-7 (NIV)