I was watching a program on OPB tonight about Christianity, Judaism, and the early church. Of all the things that stood out to me was this one word: community.

One of the historians was talking about Paul’s journey through the eastern world as he shared the good news. He kept referring to Paul’s work as “setting up Christian communities throughout the Roman empire.”

Most people often say that Paul set up churches. The Bible uses the word church rather than community, but they are one in the same. Church in both Greek and Hebrew points to body or community/assembly.

I am no longer convinced that the typical church setting is required as a means to maintain or engage in community. Scott Peck, a former psychiatrist, says there are four levels of community. The first and second, in my opinion, often describe what goes on in many institutional churches:

1. Pseudo-community: Where participants are “nice with each other”, playing-safe, and presenting what they feel is the most favourable sides of their personalities.
2. Chaos: When people move beyond the inauthenticity of pseudo-community and feel safe enough to present their “shadow” selves. This stage places great demands upon the facilitator for greater leadership and organization, but Peck believes that “organizations are not communities”, and this pressure should be resisted.
3. Emptiness: This stage moves beyond the attempts to fix, heal and convert of the chaos stage, when all people become capable of acknowledging their own woundedness and brokenness, common to us all as human beings. Out of this emptiness comes…
4. True community: the process of deep respect and true listening for the needs of the other people in this community. This stage Peck believes can only be described as “glory” and reflects a deep yearning in every human soul for compassionate understanding from one’s fellows.

True Community, to me, isn’t about finding the perfect church, or being a part of a specific club or group. It’s about living out the messy realities of life with people around you whom you can love and trust.

I have experienced community in greater and more profound ways outside the four walls of a church. I’m thoroughly convinced that many Christians miss out on the depth and power of community by failing to simply live life without the need to worship leaders, rules, and programs.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is community. The three are one, and there is no greater authority among them. They function in unison and their relationship is mutually edifying.

Imagine if the impetus for the believers’ life was based on that!