Community must be a “means”.
The rights, privileges, advantages of simple community life will not support
community. We will create the end by our pettiness and rivalry and selfishness and agendas. We will alienate our loved ones and create alliances with those we dislike. We will sabotage the entire mess if the goal is community. Community, in order to be community and make it as a community, must be based on
the missiology we are called into in Christ.
If we try to achieve community by living together and learning how to
get along and sharing, it will always collapse upon itself. It is the same as sadness or introversion or non-medical depression. If we try to make things/ourselves better, happier, we will fail because we are looking at the problem for the answer. We were designed to be outward focused. The major result of the Garden fall was that
we turned our focus inward, self looking at our own nakedness. Adam’s first sentence after the fall has five
“I’s” in it. Five in one sentence. Living in community was/is our design
but not as an end but as a means to participation in God’s plan. This is part of the genius of Michael Breen's 3DM www.weare3dm.com. We all must be missional.
Community/belonging is like puzzle pieces. We are meant to fit together to create a unified
picture/story.
Each piece must be authentically that particular piece and
not try to be something different than who they are -no covetousness. Each piece must fit in with others and must be willing
to fit together. It must submit to the
group. It must move with the group. Groups of puzzle pieces are not community. Community is much easier if all pieces can see the outcome
picture. This is why not vision casting but vision revealing and buy in are critical. Leaders are not the biggest
pieces or even the vision caster but facilitators, helping all the pieces including themselves to discern the picture and come together in the right
order/sequence/placement. It can work
but it is much harder if only a prophet has the picture but no one else can see it. Much better for the prophet to teach. It is not then required nor essential nor even desirable for the leader to have the puzzle picture in mind. The leader only has to get everyone in on the game.
