I had to run an errand the other day for church. Basically it consisted of swinging by a few houses of members of our congregation to pick some things up. To make it to 5 houses took me well over 3 hours… and I was at each house for less than 2 minutes.
A few years back I was living just outside Chicago. I re-connected with some old friends and was looking to connect with a church as well. It turned out that my friends were making a 45 minute- 1 hour commute to attend Willow Creek’s mid-week service.
These are more dramatic examples of things I do every day/week. In an age of transportation (and consummerism), I pass at least 5 local congregations in my neighborhood to attend church. Sure, maybe it is what it is. And maybe I ask annoying questions. But driving around the other day made me wonder: How “local” are our churches?
The definition of local: 1.pertaining to or characterized by place or position in space; spatial.
It seems that our church communities are no longer “characterized by place or position”. They are characterized by other stuff: style, theology, likes/dislikes, etc. But communities of God’s people are hardly characterized by their local. (If they are, it is in only a very general sense- how much I am willing to spend on gas). This is important to me because I believe that community (at least the sort of community that God desires for His people) requires proximity. Community after all, demands time and space.
Against this back drop I remember stories my grandma has told me. Well, maybe not stories, but parts of stories. In parts of her stories she can name every family on her block. And with each family came the names of parents and kids, stories, and shared memories. Other stories of my grandma included walking two blocks to church every week. And all church stories included people, stories, and relationships the exuded community. Not everyone in the neighborhood went to church. But everyone at church lived in the neighborhood. Sure, times were very different. But we still live next door to neighbors and down the street from worshiping congregations. What I struggle with is the quality of our relationships with both our neighbors and within our churches.
There is no doubt that community is at the heart of God’s intention for His creation- salvation itself is communal.
So I wonder if we can re-imagine a local church. What would it look like if our church building was in the neighborhood (think of the closes church to your house/apartment)? What would it look like if all the members of your congregation lived in the neighborhood? Would your church community look different? Would your relationships with your non-Christian neighbors look different?
What do you think… should this imagination inform us? change us?