Question:
Dear Greg,
My
question came about from my reading of “Our Greatest Gift” by Henri Nouwen.
Mr. Nouwen brings out many ideas that almost seem heretical at first, but
are tremendous food for thought. In
the book he talks about the Christian community and that the death of a member
of that community is a release of the Holy Spirit and results in growth and more
fruitfulness in the community. This
at first seemed heretical to me because we focus only on the death of Christ.
In
the context of the present Christian community do these statements have any
validity in your experiences or others you have heard of?
I personally do not feel that I am part of a healthy Christian community.
Attending a church is not getting the job done—something is drastically
missing.
David
Answer: Dear David,
The
Bible reveals that God’s kingdom is “already, but not yet.”
That is, the kingdom is present, with us now, in the person of Jesus
Christ who lives in us and who will return bodily in the future, bringing the
fullness of the kingdom with him.
Even
the Old Testament affirms death as a hopeful passage rather than a final
meaningless end—“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his
saints” (Psalm 116:15).
Finding
community and fulfillment in a Christian community?
We need to be careful lest this quest be some ideal and leads to
disillusionment with Christianity at large.
All Christian churches, whatever their size—all small groups, all
prayer groups—are composed of imperfect humans, including us!
That means there will be problems. Sometimes
our longing for perfection (in others especially!) can be somewhat like the
spouse who longs for someone who is better, more loving, more this, more that,
than his or her present spouse. We
focus on what is wrong with our spouse—or we focus on the shortcomings of our
faith group, instead of asking God to help us be more of a servant where we are
so that others might see Christ through us.
In
Christ,
Greg
Albrecht