The Attractional Force of Community

If you're involved in any gospel-community-mission type conversations then this is probably not a new thought for you. Lots of discussions have surfaced in the past decade or so as the church's strategy to reach the lost has seen a shift in focus - from the attractional/seeker-sensitive model to a more missional and sometimes more organic model. We've seen the rise of leaders like Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, cool trendy quirky Australian guys (Alan Hirsch), and others who have challenged us to think differently and move the conversations about Jesus outside the walls of a church building and into the workplaces/neighborhoods/hobbies of those who claim to love and follow Him.

What I want to discuss and see happen is this ... followers of Jesus finding ways to infuse Gospel conversations wisely (no Jesus Jukes) into everyday life and conversation ... backed by a supporting equipping community! So, how do we do that? Steve Timis and Tim Chester (Total Church dudes) really emphasize the importance of community in any evangelistic efforts. I want to see how that works ... in the life of a 9-5er, in the life of a full time mom, in the life of a CEO.

I know that because of the books I read and the conversations I'm in that I'm supposed to believe that genuine Christian community is attractive. And I know it is attractive to me. And I believe that it was attractive to the culture in Jerusalem centuries ago (Acts 2:44-47 "all the believers were together ... Lord added to their number"). How can it be displayed as attractive to our culture, here, today?

When I sit in my living room surrounded by people in my community group, ranging in age from 20s-50s, ranging in level of education, race, stage of life ... I feel the bond that we have and know that it comes from our common need for and acceptance of God's grace shown through Jesus. And I love it. But is it just my faith that gives me a category to appreciate the value of the community I experience? If so, then is it still attractive to someone without faith?

Something that has brought this discussion back to my mind is an article called Third Place. Basically, the idea that the worship gathering (Sunday) and the home group (mid weekish) both contain some amount of barriers for unchurched, and therefore, a third place is needed to interact with non-believers and allow them to interact with the Gospel Community. Something in me says there should be no need to program this ... our lifestyles should be infused (favorite word of the week possibly) with "third places" where we hang out with sinners. But ... this doesn't seem to be the case. So, if we have to program it to make it happen, so be it.

But how do you program it and keep it genuine?

As I discussed this idea with a group leader this morning I realized quickly that their plan would likely result in a fair amount of awkwardness and likely fall short of the kind of attractive community that we want to display to the world.

As I pitched the idea to the group that meets in our home I got some honest push-back. "If my friends want to hangout with people, they're going to hang out with their own friends, they don't have to join us to do that... if they are going to hang out with our community group it is going to be because they want to hear what we are saying about God and life." Hmm, interesting perspective. But guess what, they aren't coming to hear it.

Though we don't form community around affinity, I recognize that a third place is likely to be most effective if the setting makes sense to the people invited. The 20 somethings guy is gonna invite his buddies to a sports bar to eat wings, drink a be- soda, and watch a game. The mom with two kids is gonna invite her mom friends to the park or God's fast food restaurant (Chik-Fil-A).

My thoughts at this point: People should be hanging out with sinners on sinner territory regularly to be salt and light in the culture, but since they are not ... let's give ideas/tools/programs to be a catalyst for this lifestyle change to happen. The question that remains - what does it look like for inter-generational, non-affinity based Community Groups to do that together?