The Church as a Community

A community is a group of people with a common ground. In the community, the people learn from and depend upon each other, sometimes physically, and almost always emotionally. For example, an ecosystem is a community of living things that live together in a common environment and depend upon each other for food and life. A school is a group of people who depend upon each other Ð the students depend upon their instructors to teach, lead, and guide them. On the other hand, the instructors depend on the students to study and put effort into grasping the concepts being taught. A church is also a community. Although there are many different religious communities (everything from Buddhists to Muslims), I will be examining the Christian church as a community.

The foundations of the Christian church date back to Jesus Christ, born in BC 4, from which the Christian religion is named. He traveled around bringing teachings about the Kingdom of God. His activities roused the opposition of the Jewish high priests who accused him of blasphemy. He was crucified under the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor. After three days, Christ resurrected from the dead causing his disciples to take to heart his teachings and spread the message of God to the rest of the world. The earliest church communities did not come until later (http://members.aol.com/ggmathew/church01.htm).

After the disciples devoted themselves to teaching the Word of God, to fellowship with each other, to the breaking of the bread, and prayer. Everyone was filled with wonder and awe at the miracles performed by the apostles, and many were converted to the Christian community at this time. Around this time, the Church grew to about five thousand members, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch (http://members.aol.com/ggmathew/church02.htm). The earliest church communities occurred after Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century. Many spiritual souls looked to Christianity as a way of how things ought to be. The early church was headed up by leaders like Augustine, Basil, Jerome, and John Chrysotom. The "Desert Fathers" of the 4th century set up communities in desert areas. Some of their writings, like those of St. Antony, still exist today.

In the 20th century, there is a wide variety of Christian communities that exist (from traditional Roman Catholic and Anglican) in all parts of the world. Communist China has the Jesus Family, Germany spawned Bruderhof. Some think that World War II produced fertile ground for expressions of love and sharing, with young people looking for solid moral ground and for relationships that carry weight. America has produced the Community of Celebration, Reba Place, JPUSA (Jesus People USA), and a host of other smaller communities. The main doctrine of the Christian community is rising up to the challenge of laying down their life for their brothers and sisters in a prophetic life of sharing justice, simplicity, and heart relationships, all through Jesus Christ, the main reason for the Christian church (http://www.jesus.org.uk/history.html).

In examining the composition of the Christian community one will find that the Christian church typically has a minister or priest and several church leaders. The ministersÕ or priestsÕ jobs are to bring the Word of God to the group of people they instruct (typically known as the congregation). The congregation joins together on certain days (most often Sundays) to worship God and hear a convicting message from the priest or minister.

As a whole, the church works together to encourage, teach, and learn together. All of the different "parts" of the church work together to make up the community. For example, the priest or minister relies on the congregation to attend the services and give their tithes or offerings. The congregation relies on the priest or minister to give them spiritual guidance, and the congregation also relies on each other for building close, personal relationships.

There are different ways that the church builds these strong ties together. First of all, there is the religious aspect. Many churches are ceremonial, especially Catholic churches. The congregation will partake in communion, or the LordÕs supper, together. Other religious ceremonies include baptisms or christenings, and prayer. Partaking in these religious ceremonies together tends to unify the congregation. Members of a church often admit that many of their closest friends are not individuals that they work with or go to school with, but those who are directly involved in their church. An ideal reason could be because they are not only linked to those other people by sharing common personal grounds, but sharing common spiritual grounds.

The second way that the church community builds strong ties is through social activities. Many churches have retreats, in which a group of members from the church will go away on a trip together. Sometimes there are barbecues, or parties, especially for the youth of the church community. These social rituals are just as important as the spiritual rituals because the community as a whole is very interdependent Ð you can not have one aspect of the community without having the other.

As previously suggested, a community can be dependent on each other emotionally and physically. A church community is a perfect example of this. Individuals rely on their church community for many things. First of all, a church community tends to be quite stable. Stability is a comfort to many people caught with the stresses of school, work, and just day-to-day living. Secondly, the church community provides a safe haven for those that are in need. An excellent example of this would be Alamo City Christian Fellowship located in San Antonio, Texas. This church provides food and clothing for those that have no where else to turn. According to Dr. David Walker, minister of ACCF, their church takes in at least a hundred people each week looking for food, clothing, and spiritual guidance (http://www.alamocity.org).

Many members of a church community decided to join that specific community because they were looking for a moral code of conduct. The moral code of conduct for the Christian Church as a whole is basically the same, but each denomination (Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc.) each have their minor differences. The moral code of conduct for a specific church community is something that is known by each member of that community. Having a code of morals to follow often helps the members feel better about themselves, like a goal that they are trying to accomplish. Often times if a code is broken, or a member of the church community is feeling some sort of remorse in their life, they feel comforted by going to the church and coming to terms with what they did.

The Church members do not necessarily have to meet in a physical building composed of stain-glass windows, and wooden pews in order to be considered part of the community. There is a web site called the "Cyberspace Catacombs" that is dedicated to members of the Church who share the common faith and want to correspond with other members of the community. Upon downloading the web site, one will notice designs of multi colored ictuses (the classic symbol of Christianity that one might see on bumper stickers or t-shirts today). The ictuses represent all the tribes of all the nations (which are discussed in the Bible). As catacombs were used in the first century AD by early Christians as hiding places for an endangered community, the Cyberspace Catacombs are for members of the Christian community who live in the parts of the world where believers must meet in secret (http://www.mindspring.com/~tentmakr/pphp/landlord.html). However, this is not the only "on-line community" devoted to unifying the Christian community. Christian chat rooms are innumerable on the Internet, but are often filled with individuals of Atheist background or those who are just critical of Christianity as a whole, who are constantly challenging those in the chat rooms. There are also Christian matchmaking services on the Internet, and Christian "self-help" web sites (http://www.hopefortheheart.com).

The United States is the country that is considered the "land of Christianity." Mostly because during the 19th century, there was a great upsurge in community activity with both Christian and secular communities. The main focus became America because vast tracts of land were available there. In the pledge of allegiance, America is known as "one country under God," and a line written across the dollar bill reads, "In God we trust."

With the emergence of the Internet came a new way for the Christian community to unify itself and break the overseas barriers. Christians from the United States can now go into a chat room and chat with members of the Christian community from Russia, Israel, or Japan.

In conclusion, the Church is a community whether its members come from the same country or not. The Church community shares a basic common ground, which is to follow the teachings of Christ and spread the Word of God to everyone. The Church has also proven to be a haven Ð when many people find themselves in trouble, they turn to the Church for help or guidance. Although the Church has had many critics over the years, the general population of the Church community expresses intense importance for the Church community in their daily living.