Christians are formed in Community
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. African Proverb
Gregg’s Reflection
Before I share my thoughts on Community, I wanted to share this:
Invitation to Fellow Travelers:
Over the past years, I’ve been walking what I call God’s Faint Path—a quiet trail of spiritual seeking shaped by wilderness, silence, scripture, and the voices of saints and mystics across the ages. I’ve shared reflections along the way, not as a teacher with answers, but as a fellow pilgrim wondering aloud.
But here’s what I know: the faint path can be a lonely road.
James Finley once wrote of Thomas Merton, his beloved friend and spiritual guide as “an elder brother on the lonely road to God.” I’ve often felt the ache and gift of that truth. And like many of you, I’ve longed for the company of kindred souls—those who hunger not for religious performance, but for depth, transformation, and union with the Living God.
So I’m extending an invitation:
Would you like to journey together in a small circle of fellow travelers?
I’m imagining something simple:
• A space for shared reflections and spiritual conversation
• Periodic Zoom gatherings rooted in presence, silence, and honest sharing
• Occasional audio meditations or contemplative teachings
• An online hub for encouragement and soul friendship
This would not be about promoting a brand or building a following. It would be about mutual presence—walking side-by-side as we each listen for the Spirit’s voice in our own lives.
If something in your soul says yes, I’d love to hear from you. We’ll let it grow slowly, organically, and only with those who feel drawn.
You can reply here or reach out and see what wants to happen. I plan to begin by inviting those interested to join a Zoom which I have tentatively scheduled for June 24th. Details to follow.
With gratitude and quiet hope,
Gregg
Community
I have many friends who are ‘spiritual, but not religious.’ I have other friends who claim Christ, but are not part of a Christian fellowship. Many people love Jesus but have a problem with the church. Gandhi said: “I like your Christ, I don’t like your Christians. They are so unlike unlike your Christ.” Sadly, I have found much truth in his statement. For years I pursued a spiritual journey without being part of a community. Indeed, I could not see Christ for the Christians.
In Vernon Luckey, a Lutheran pastor, I found someone who knew the Christ I had heard of and read about in the Bible. He drew me to Christ, baptized me, and welcomed me into a local expression of the body of Christ. Apostles Lutheran, the church we joined, was far from perfect. I drew solace from a teaching I heard while driving around my sales territory. The pastor proclaimed, “If you ever find a perfect church, don’t join it, because you’ll ruin it.”
My life in Christian community began in 1980. The experience has been exhilarating and painful, with times of great stress and times of great joy. My children gained an moral and spiritual framework through our involvement in the church. Yet, they and their families are not involved in a Christian community today.
I know many people who have turned away from the church after painful experiences. Many more never darken the door of church because of the hypocrisy and judgmental attitudes they see in Christians. Yet, despite it all, with all the brokenness and sin I’ve found in church, I still remain convinced that the local Christian church is the primary means of forming Christ-followers and setting them on a pathway to spiritual maturity. The fundamental question is how can we love the God we cannot see, if we struggle to love the people around us we can see. We see it stated this way in Scripture: 1 John 4:20: For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
I am reminded of how a sculptor chips away at a block of stone until the figure she envisions is released from the stone. The beauty emerges as the rough edges are chipped away. I look back at the person I was when I was baptized at age 28, and realize that I have been a work in process for ever since.
Think about the sharply angled boulders that are dislodged and fall into a river. Slowly, over a long period of time the current pushes the boulder downstream. As it encounters other rocks caught in the current, they rub up against each other and chip away the sharp edges. By the time the rocks reach the mouth of the river, they have been smoothed into nearly round river rocks.
From my own experience, the process of chipping away the sharp edges is inherently painful, and will only be undertaken in the service of a larger goal. As we choose Christ in our lives, we then make other choices to shape and mold our lives into the image of Christ.
Think of the river’s current as the force of God’s grace flowing around us, propelling us further into the depth of God’s love. These two forces, the current of God’s grace, and the other believers in the stream, interact together to smooth us out as the river smooths the river rock. It is in learning to get along with others who share faith in Christ, but have little else in common that helps us mature as believers.
Genie and I were first part of adult Sunday classes in which we formed deep friendships and walked together through the good times and bad with a small group of other young parents. We learned together, went camping together, met in each others homes for meals. This life on life journey allowed us to be inspired by the lives we saw, and perhaps inspire others. We were invited to spiritual retreats that proved invaluable in launching my spiritual journey. I met men who had years of experience and wisdom in the ways of Christ. To this day, I stay in touch with some of these men who were so important to my formation as a man and a leader.
One of my church friends invited me to join him for a weekend Christian Businessmen’s Retreat in 1982, and I only missed going three years in the next three decades. We walked together for thirty years, caring for and challenging each other.
Our children were baptized and confirmed in our local church. My son met his wife-to-be on a church ski trip with another local congregation. Our continuing involvement in small groups of couples meeting in homes for fellowship, learning and service brought a resolve to live the Christian life, and pragmatic examples that inspired us in how to do so.
Living life in Christian community encourages us to learn to appreciate diverse gifts and talents, to deal with conflict when it arises, and to grow in maturity. Sometimes we share a vision of the future, but argue about tactics to get there. Sometimes there is a conflict of vision. Sometimes there is just a conflict of personality. Learning to love each other even when we don’t like each other at the moment is a mark of growing maturity.
This picture wonderfully illustrates the effect. Without community, some never come down off Mt Stupid. You see multiple business failures, multiple divorces, inability to admit mistakes, to seek forgiveness. I pity those folks.
In the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible, I find a strong affirmation of the ongoing role of the local church community to the formation of faith. In the introduction to the Pauline letters is an essay called The People of God in Community. In it, the authors make a strong case that the path to maturity in the life of a Christ-follower unfolds in community.
In the Letters of the New Testament, we find the continuing incarnation of Jesus Christ in “gathered communities.” These communities of faith-the Body of Christ in the world-literally become a new organism, in which people become part of one another, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, help one another begin, nurture and sustain their relationship with God. They help new disciples discover and cultivate their own spiritual gifts while teaching them to celebrate the gifts of others. Sustaining a life with God without an active, living connection to a visible expression of the Body of Christ is virtually impossible and is not a goal to be sought after.
The community of faith has been established to bring us into living communion with God and abiding fellowship with one another. We seek God and find him most often through the ministry of a local church. Here we experience, in real and concrete ways, the love of Christ and learn how we are to love one another despite disagreements and imperfections. This love, witnessed by those outside the community, draws the world to God.
Every community of faith is a real, if imperfect, reflection of the kingdom of God, and ultimately exists to preserve a living witness to the life of love, power, and peace that comes from God alone. Under the discipline of guidance, by the spiritually mature in the local church, we learn the secret of spiritual formation as we put off the old nature and ‘put on Jesus Christ.’ In our life together, we experience the risen Christ. Life finds it truest, fullest expression in pouring ourselves out as a sacrifice to God, working with him to bring his kingdom to earth.
Don’t get me wrong, I have encountered significant conflict, pain and betrayal in my church community. The sinfulness of a broken people does not end just because God forgives us and we forgive each other. As Richard Foster says in the Renovare Bible,
We are challenged to be living sacrifices. The only problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.
Often, we continue to lust after our idols, not being truly challenged into discipleship. However, without the experience of living in the community of a body of Christ, I would never had the strength, courage and persistence to keep seeking and trying to follow God’s faint path. Blessings
Journaling Prompts
Where do you find community that shapes you? Where can you be ‘seen’ and known for who you are? Who are the people who challenge your ‘sharp edges’? What does discipleship look like in your life to draw you deeper?
Scripture
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!
Psalm 133:1
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
The quality of our relationship with God will be no better than the quality of our relationships with others.
Renovare Bible Notes on Malachi 2:14-15
For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
Matthew 19:20
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-35
The Fellowship of the Believers: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:42-47
For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Romans 12:4-5
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:1-2
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:12-17
And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
1 Thessalonians 5:14
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:8-11
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:11
Ancient Writings
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
African Proverb
I think that for those living in community obedience is a greater virtue than chastity, however perfect. Chastity carries within it the danger of pride, but obedience has within it the promise of humility.
Amma Syncletica, Celtic Daily Prayer, Book Two, p. 1429
We have an obligation not only to love each other but also in our love to make ourselves as loveable as possible so that it is easy for our sisters and brothers to love us.
William of St. Thierry
The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. This Word manifests itself in every creature.
Hildegard of Bingen
If I had a friend and loved him because of the benefits which this brought me and because of getting my own way, then it would not be my friend that I loved but myself. I should love my friend on account of his own goodness and virtues and account of all that he is in himself. Only if I love my friend in this way do I love him properly.
Meister Eckhart, Selected Writings
The measure of love is to love without measure.
Francis de Sales
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
Modern Writings
Young adults in today’s era of technologically mediated socializing are lacking real-life human contact and love—without which no one can truly flourish. This exception created by greater human connection is the starting point for how we might address this pandemic of young people’s unhappiness.
Arthur C. Brooks, WHY ARE YOUNG PEOPLE EVERYWHERE SO UNHAPPY?
To love another person is to see the face of God.
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. The welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all.
Helen Keller
We are all members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.
J.B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls
The first service one owes to others in a community involves listening to them. Just as our love for God begins with listening to God’s Word, the beginning of love for others is learning to listen to them. God’s love for us is shown by the fact that God not only gives God’s Word, but also lends us God’s ear. . . . We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other’s faults and failures.
Mother Teresa
God will bring people and events into our lives, and whatever we may think about them, they are designed for the evolution of His life in us.
Thomas Keating
In community we search for the human being we are meant to be; together, we discover the beauty of the human face.
Jean Vanier
Suppose somebody showed us a way whereby we would truly love one another, and be at peace, be at love. Can you think of anything more practical than that? But, instead, you have people thinking that big business is more practical, that politics is more practical, that science is more practical. What’s the earthly use of putting a man on the moon when we cannot live on the earth?
Anthony de Mello, Awareness
How can you love someone whom you do not even see?”
Anthony de Mello, Awareness
It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.
Thomas Merton
Community is where humility and glory touch.
Henri Nouwen
Community means that people come together around the table, not just to feed their bodies, but to feed their minds and their relationships.
Henri Nouwen
Community is a Quality of the Heart. The search for community is a deeply human search and the ideal community remains mostly the object of hopes and dreams. But if I keep those hopes and dreams alive, true community will reveal itself in the most unexpected places and times. Community is first of all a quality of the heart, a quality that touches all those whom you meet in your life, not only your own family, but also the people you work and play with.
The source of all community, however, is your most intimate relationship with the Lord because the deeper you enter into communion with him, the more clearly you will find that all those whom you love are hidden in his heart. Keep close to the Bible and taste it to the full. There is a very deep hunger in many people for the life in the Spirit and many people need to be nurtured continuously by the Word of God.
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 5/22/21
Community is Heart Calling to Heart. Friendship, marriage, family, religious life, and every other form of community is solitude greeting solitude, spirit speaking to spirit, and heart calling to heart. It is the grateful recognition of God’s call to share life together and the joyful offering of a hospitable space where the re-creating power of God’s Spirit can become manifest. Thus all forms of life together can become ways to reveal to each other the real presence of God in our midst.
Similarities in educational background, psychological makeup, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other. . . . The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be, and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and sons and daughters of his heavenly Father.
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 5/21/21
In true community we are windows constantly offering each other new views on the mystery of God’s presence in our lives. Thus the discipline of community is a true discipline of prayer. It makes us alert to the presence of the Spirit who cries out “Abba,” Father, among us and thus prays from the center of our common life. Community thus is obedience practiced together. The question is not simply “Where does God lead me as an individual person who tried to do his will?” More basic and more significant is the question “Where does God lead us as a people?”
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 5/23/21
By prayer, community is created as well as expressed. Prayer is first of all the realization of the community itself. Most clear and most noticeable are the words, the gestures, and the silence through which the community is formed. When we listen to the word, we not only receive insight into God’s saving work, but we also experience a new mutual bond. When we stand around the altar, eat bread and drink wine, kneel in meditation, or walk in procession, we not only remember God’s work in human history, but we also become aware of God’s creative presence here and now. When we sit together in silent prayer, we create a space where we sense that the One we are waiting for is already touching us, as he touched Elijah in front of the cave (1 Kings 19:13).
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 5/24/21
God is with us in Community. The community of faith offers the protective boundaries within which we can listen to our deepest longings, not to indulge in morbid introspection, but to find our God to whom they point. In the community of faith we can listen to all these longings and find the courage, not to avoid them or cover them up, but to confront them in order to discern God’s presence in their midst.
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 5/25/21
We Are Windows to God’s Love. The discipline of community makes us persons; that is, people who are sounding through to each other (the Latin personare means “sounding through”) a truth, a beauty, and a love that is greater, fuller, and richer than we ourselves can grasp.
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 5/23/23
Until we learn to love others as ourselves, it's difficult to blame broken people who desperately try to affirm themselves when no one else will.
Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
We’re in a spiritual crisis, and the key to building a true belonging practice is maintaining our belief in inextricable human connection. That connection is the spirit that flows between us and every other human in the world is not something that can be broken; however, our belief in the connection is constantly tested and repeatedly severed.
Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness, CAC Morning Devotion, 5/24/21