Community?

I was thinking the other day what community means or how it is plays out within the church. What does the church usually identify as community: small groups is the most common answer. We ask people to leave their comfort zone and enter into the Christian bubble. This is the case in most churches and it is the case where I currently serve. But I did get a glimpse of what community could be like. Our last sg meeting was an interesting one to say the least. We had a gentleman invited by a couple in the group who bought him a thanksgiving dinner one day outside of Aldi's. She was led to buy this man food and in the converstaion he decided he wanted to go to church with them. He came and he wanted to come to the sg. They brought him and the man instantly starts to share how God has impacted his life. Interesting stuff. He goes off on a tangent directing the converstation towards a universal God. He said he taught Islam in prison and the such. He continues to bang the drum that we all worship the same God(He mentioned several different religions). My intial reaction was to break out my kung-fu likes skills in apologetics and start rippin' a new one but i waited. I saw the reaction of some of people there and they were seemed confused. I was fighting everything i was trained to do it was like my mind was saying he is wrong!!! But my heart was saying just wait. I finally decided that I would say something. I said something to the effect that Jesus is God in flesh and that is not what Islam believes. I contined to add that this would be great if we could continue the dialogue and learn from each other. After I said this I second guessed myself the whole time wondering why I didn't just let it go and maybe wait until the relationship was established. I think he just wanted to be heard and I heard what he was saying but didn't agree. It was exciting to see and hear someone outside the bubble with different views. It definetly added a different dymanic to the group. It was awkward, uncomfortable but it was good.

The other aspect was at the close of the night our kids came up from the basement. There are several toddlers in the group and my little girl was with one of the other leaders in the group laughing and giggling. I had another little girl and she was just lovin' on me. As i looked around and seen kids with other parents just loving on them. This is the world that I want my daughter to know. The family of God loving on each other. It was just cool watching kids crawling, droolling, babbling, and melting the hearts of the adults. I believe that this is one aspect of community that is the coolest. I know that I want my daughter and future son to grow and know these people or people like them. I want her to see her dad going over to someones house to fix a water heater, to put a window in, to bring them grocieries, to push a car in the garage so we can fix it. I want her to know that church is people loving people and that is it. The love of Christ is infectious and ludacrious it just doesn't make sense. I pray that God will mold me and help me change the mindset of the current church that I am involved in. I believe He will because He is already changing me.

Community is a buzz word that is being throw around but I know it when I experience it. All I know is I never would have met the man if someone would not have loved him they way Jesus would. A need was there and the couple met it therefore, he was not as hesitant to enter the bubble. I just want to be more invovled with bringing community to the people and not asking them to leave. Community who knows?