Christian community - Our worldly fortress

Some of you may have known hove much I am enlightened, encouraged, and motivated by this book that I have been reading over the course of three months or so, namely: "The Transforming Vision" by Brian J. Walsh & J. Richard Middleton. I've now reached the last two chapters of this truly blessed book that contains such comprehensive biblical analysis on the world's modern worldview.

Just at the end of Chapter 10, "A Christian Cultural Response", I read something that truly demands our attention.


Cultural anxiety easily gives way to a sense of powerlessness. Convinced that the idolatrous forces of destruction are living an independent life of their own, we stand immobilized, watching our world view fall apart. It seems we can do nothing.
"How can I, one junior executive, begin to apply this Christian cultural vision in the multinational corporation for which I work?"
A doctor says, "I know that patients are treated as objects because the medical establishment has made gods out of the scientific method and technological efficiency. But what can I, one lonely Christian general practitioner, do?"
The answer? Nothing! By yourself you can do nothing in the kingdom of God. Just as our renewal in the image of God is communal, so our task of implementing a Christian cultural vision is communal. John Francis Kavanaugh has said that a Christian,
"in the face of our culture's dwarfing and isolating the individual, must turn to a community of shared life-experience which fosters committed faith and enables the individual to criticize and challenge the programming of the culture. The most effective means by which both goals are achieved is in a communally shared Christian life."
We need community not only because the problems are so big but because we are the body of Christ. We experience our individuality primarily in terms of our unique contribution to the body...

and finally, this paragraph ends the chapter:

What makes the Christian community Christian is its worship. A radical community, it subverts the dominant culture because it worships, serves and prays to a different God. Its worship sets the pattern for its whole life. Rather than being conformed to the world, it is a community being transformed by the renewing of its communal mind - its world view. Consequently its worship is not relegated to just liturgical activities, but it gives its whole life to God as a sacrificial offering (this is the point of Romans 12:1-2). Herein is the essence of a Christian cultural witness in a society in decline.


Brothers, how important is it to have a church for you to be in and to serve together as a community?

Well... I guess it's the same as to how important a fold is to a little lamb, or even more, how important a company is to a soldier. "Important" won't cut it any longer. Only "crucial" will do.


“The community is God's means of empowering people.”


And who, pray tell, can that "people" be?

Us.