a deconsecrated church in the metropolitan city, other branches have mushroomed in Bristol, England, Melbourne, Australia and the United States. “The idea is simple: [Sunday Assembly] has all of the community spirit, engagement, and inspiration of a church without any of the religious aspects. Each service has at least one guest speaker, from economists to poets, a moment of reflection and, above all, repeated entreaties to get to know the rest of the people there,” the article stated. Sounds uncanny? It should. The story of Sunday Assembly and its rising popularity should provide us Christians, both new or old, to seriously consider two things: 1) What is church? and 2) What is church to us? The reason why Sunday Assembly is reportedly attracting so many people is because human beings have an innate need to be part of a community. So if you prescribe to the idea that church is simply a place where Christians come to worship, you would be meeting that need. But is church just a convenient location to socialize? Or is there more to consider when we talk about community in the context of how God envisioned it? Let’s take a deeper look.
Understanding Community, God’s Way
Community existed before the beginning of time and is
rooted in the eternal Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make man in our image.” Did you notice how the verse is expressed in plural terms?
Eugene Peterson, author of The Message Bible, summed it up succinctly, “Jesus invested 90 percent of His time with 12 Jewish men so that He could reach the rest of the world.”
The creation account provides us an amazing window into the community nature of God. In fact, community is so important that even in the perfect environment - the Garden of Eden - being alone was not considered to be a good thing. God created Eve to be Adam’s companion.
The importance of a united community could be seen when Christ prayed for His disciples in John 17:11 “that they may be one as we are one”.The “we” referred to the Trinity of God, and Jesus’ desire was for us as believers to have the same kind of fellowship so as to live life to the full.
People hunger to be part of a community because we are created with God’s communal DNA. Ecclesiastes 4 further describes the importance of not being alone: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil” and “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken”.
Thus, living in a godly community is not just a lifestyle preference; it’s simply the best way to function.
Through these verses, we see that God has created us as unique individuals who are interdependent on one other.
Jesus and fellowship Jesus Christ brought God’s communal DNA one step further, as seen in His three years of ministry life.
God has created us as unique individuals who are interdependent on one another.
One example of this was the invitation for 12 men to join Him on His journey on Earth. In the three years, He spent much time with them in fellowship, nurturing and discipling them in His ways. The end goal was to empower them and send them on toward a common purpose, which was to make disciples of all nations. 35 35