Testing in Developing Gospel-Centered Community: A word from the founder of Medical Campus Outreach & Harvard’s Longwood Christian Community (Bill Pearson)

[Reading Time: 11 minutes]

The Reality

One sequela of the fall is that humans are inept at community. 

We wish it weren’t so; but it is.

From the beginning humans have hidden from each other in fear and shame, blamed others, and held fast to our inability to decide what is truly good and not good for ourselves. And in spite of the extensive historical evidence to the contrary, we expect that somehow we can do community without God’s Word and the Holy Spirit—literally the only elements by which a community can truly thrive.  

It turns out that we need the life of Jesus to love each other.  Moreover, if Jesus commands us to love one another, He is delighted to empower us to enter into community. But entering the will of the Father invites a battle of wills.

From Psuedo to Authentic Community: A continual exercise

In his work, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, psychiatrist Scott Peck presented four stages of community that have been widely adopted in organizational behavior literature as well as in church development. The gospel of Jesus further amplifies and empowers this paradigm for developing authentic community.  As with human development, each stage is important to realize full maturity.

Authentic community is not something we achieve, but like embryonic development, is something that unfolds.  As human life forms through cell regulation, genetic expression, and programmed cell death, so we too in the pathway to become like Jesus must “regulate” ourselves even to the point of our own dying, as we daily deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him together.  

And the goal of such practices—such exercises—is to begin developing a truly gospel-centered community through the Spirit Who applies Christ’s Word to us in the fires of reality.

Which Stage Are We In?

There is no shame in being in stage one or another in a relationship, marriage or community. But the reality remains that these stages cannot be bypassed.

And despite the hardship and demands of a given stage, it is far better to be in stage one of community (or two or three) than to be isolated and disengaged.

What is important for us is to identify our current stage of development and consider what steps would need to be taken for our experience of community to grow and develop in the present.

The Exercises listed

Without seeking to be systematic (in the Jacques Ellul sense of technique), we still present a series of steps—a potential pathway—that may be considered.

1. Read through these stages to appreciate the arch of developing a gospel-centered community.

2. Mentally place yourself in various communities (marriage, family, small group, ministry team, etc.)

3. Read through these stages again and circle words or phrases you identify with to discern which stage most reflects your experience in a particular community.

4. List 2-4 things to work on with others in community from Word and Spirit particularly applied.

5. In discussion with others, find agreement on gospel-centered perspectives and practices you might endeavor to adopt in order to move towards authentic community.  

Proto-community (Stage 1)

This is sometimes called “pseudo-community”, which may come across as unnecessarily pejorative. “Proto-community” indicates this as a first and essential step in experiencing Christian community with others. The essential dynamic of proto-community is conflict avoidance.

This is how most good efforts begin. 

Members are pleasant with one another and work at avoiding disagreement to pursue some greater good. People, in a sincere effort to be loving, withhold some of the truth about themselves or their circumstances to avoid conflict.

Individual differences are minimized or unacknowledged. The group may appear to be functioning smoothly but over time, intimacy and truth-telling in love are neglected. What began with good intentions can be experienced as a polite uniformity that is commonly viewed as Christian unity.  

But it is not.

The intention is commendable, but at the end of the day it does not require the gospel.  And so, operating on human terms, it fails. Then the group begins to think unity may not actually be possible. But if it endures, it enters into…

Chaos (Stage 2a and 2b)

Our human nature will simultaneously try to comply with, and inwardly resist uniformity.  We will intend to do what is good and expected, but what results is that we will fail, disappoint, and judge ourselves and each other. 

With this comes the experience of pain, sometimes amplified by previous experiences of failed relationships.

How should we respond?

There are two general kinds of responses to this experiences of pain.  Stage 2a is to transmit the pain to others, through “sharing concerns” (gossip), Biblical commentary (accusation), suggesting new rules or policies (control), giving people their space (avoidance), or some other passive-aggressive behavior. 

Stage 2b is transmitting the pain inwardly.  We assume we are the problem and everyone else has it together and we just feel inadequate.  We may even mistake accusation of the enemy as the conviction of the Holy Spirit. 

Or we think it’s on me to deal with everyone’s issues and suck it up and absorb the pain, the result of which is growing darkness and depression depressed or unexplainably exploding or shutting down. 

Pain and chaos is a necessary step toward authentic community.  It is an invitation to know and rely on Jesus alone as the source of community. 

And if we do so, He leads into…

Emptiness (Stage 3)

The way from chaos to an authentic community is through emptiness. This is the meaning of the Kenosis passage of Phil. 2:1-10.  The apostle invites us to “complete” his joy “by being of the same mind (φρονέω), having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind”. 

He then shows us how to arrive at true unity—to have the mind of Jesus who emptied himself (kenosis) and took on the form of a slave. 

In application, we don’t make excuses such as how busy we are or how well intended we were. 

That is aboidance.

This stage of emptiness is ushered in as members begin to share their own brokenness—our defeats, failures, fears—rather than trying to “have it all together”, which illusion is operationalized as we look not at the internal reality of ourselves but blame the abstract reality of “business.”

But Jesus tells us to bring the pain together to Him.

This is good news! 

We aren’t all good enough to love each other well in our own strength, but we can all be with each other in the pathway of going down. 

We can bring the pain to Jesus. 

We can empty ourselves and receive the power of the Holy Spirit to genuinely love each other despite our personal or circumstantial limitations. And if we do so, we move to…

Authentic community (Stage 4)

The invitation to authentic community through the gospel is to bring our brokenness and pain to Jesus for healing and transformation (I John 1:7-10). 

We love much because we have been forgiven much (Luke 7:47). 

We begin to truly believe that we can only be reconciled to one another through the gospel.

There will always be issues in community; yet our mentality is that before we can only begin to work toward resolving such issues, we must first apply the gospel through and in Christ by the application of the Word and Spirit.

That is the pathway.

Life together is now defined by our crucified, resurrected, and ascended Lord.

What does this mean?

It means we readily confess our sins to each other.  We are quick to forgive.  We speak the truth in love to each other.  We amplify the voice of Jesus for each other and repent regularly of our idolatry. We outdo each other in honor.  We freely engage in prayer together and experience answers. 

Problems are transformed into opportunities.

We testify to the power of God working in our lives. 

 But the question then arises, How do we keep this going?

A Word on “Maintaining Community”

The Bible teaches us to “bear with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:2).  Communion must be actively “maintained.”

If our commitment to each other is defined by our ability to keep rules, honor cultural preferences, agree on politics (though fine in themselves)—our community will be built on the wood, hay and stubble of them.

And as this cannot maintain any genuine community, our life together will fail and hostilities will arise. 

The Pathway: Reconciliation Before Resolution

Hospitality only comes through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Practically this means daily, reconciliation must always precede resolution. That is, when issues come (and they will) we count the sacrifice of Jesus worthy to cover our issues and make us one.  From this place, resolution emerges. 

The way, however, of the world is to require issues be resolved BEFORE we reconcile and enter into trust and community. 

This is what ends marriages and divides synods.  We want our fleshly demands (good as they may be) to be met before we become one. 

Yet, all the while, Jesus stands by us, gently whispering in our ear that we can be one because He has already put to death in His body all that can he weaponized in life together.

He Himself bore it all, as Peter tells us, in His body on the tree

That we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes we jave been healed (I Pet 2:24).

And we are now His body in this broken and fallen age, follow the He Who is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls (2:25), Who makes His life and sufferings and death and resurrection to operate in us