Christian (those who are connected to Christ) community is a community gathered in Jesus Christ, solely through what Christ has done for all of us. Many people have misconceptions of how the church community should be and come looking for some extraordinary experiences of communities that were denied them elsewhere. Many people confuse Christian community with some wishful image of a pious community, bringing with them a definite image of what Christian communal life should be; entering the community with their demands, set up on their own law, and judging one another. Many people act as if they have to create the Christian community. However, sooner or later, seeing that people are not perfect and cannot live up to the wishful image of how a church should be, they are met with great disappointment and disillusionment with church members and Christians in general.
Christian community is not an ideal community but a divine one; where God is present. God has already laid the only foundation for our community, through the life and death of Jesus Christ, long before we ever entered into it. Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a community created by God in Christ in which we may participate. Because God has united us in one body with other people in Jesus Christ, we enter into the community together with other people, not as those who make demands, but as those who thankfully receive. We thank God for what God has done for us. We thank God for giving us other Christians who live by God’s call, forgiveness, and promise. Even when we cannot create the idealized community, we can still pray and hope for a better one – where there is abundance of love shown through caring, understanding, and forgiving of one another.
* Based on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book "Life Together."
