Part Three of A Radical, Modest Proposal for Younger Church Leaders
Local communities seem to be a thing of the past, if by communities we mean neighborhoods where we know and depend on one another. We are a society of commuters; most of us no longer expect to work, shop, eat, socialize, or send our kids to school near the place where we live. The local community is no longer a priority. Now we seem to prefer “regional communities” or even “the global community.” As Wendell Berry said, “Many people now feel more at home, and more at ease socially, at a professional convention than in the streets of their own neighborhood.”
Unfortunately, the church, as in other areas, is mimicking rather than truly engaging culture. We’ve built regional churches that feel more like convention centers than neighborhood gathering places. We intentionally seek to attract people from other communities, rather than reach our own neighborhoods. The church has little meaningful connection to a place. It is simply one more venue, a destination, like the theater or department store.
Again, I don’t want to disparage the good that has been done by the regional church model, but I do believe there have been unintended consequences. Rather than focus on the negative, I want to offer three key advantages of the truly local, neighborhood church.
1. Natural Community. Regional churches seem always to be looking for ways to manufacture community; but genuine community is elusive because people’s lives are so disconnected. When a church grows primarily from within a neighborhood, authentic community occurs more naturally, because people live in close proximity to one another. It takes less effort to connect. It’s much easier to be involved in one another’s lives, to truly know and depend on one another.
2. Natural Discipleship. As a community of genuine believers grows within a neighborhood, they form a little pocket of God’s kingdom, where Jesus is acknowledged as Lord. Discipleship takes place naturally, as people spend time with one another, shaping one another, and helping one another grow in faith, hope, and love. Discipleship is not a church program, but a lifestyle. It happens naturally as Christians do life together in community.
3. Natural Outreach. These little pockets of God’s kingdom—where people love and look out for one another—can be exceptionally attractive to those who are seeking genuine connection. It’s easy and natural to invite people from the neighborhood to a backyard barbeque, for example, and to give them their first taste of what life is like in the kingdom.
Our society lost something significant when it lost its local communities. While some may think the neighborhood church is a relic of the past, I believe they can be countercultural in the best sense. A truly local, neighborhood church can help to reweave the frayed fabric of community and be a seedbed for true redemption.
Continue the series: Grow Diverse
Originally posted Tuesday, 6 Mar 2012