I have been churchless for nigh on to 5 years due to the crush of disunity. I have been feeling the lack of fellowship and community due to my choice to abstain from ‘church’. Thanks be to all of you for the conversation. i was beginning to feel isolated and … bewildered…hmmm

In Christ we are free, but it is difficult to see that freedom when we are constantly battling the majority.

I know it is there, I know it is there, I truly believe that all we need is Jesus and He will carry us through ~ thanks everyone for being His hands and feet. Thanks for the fellowship, and especially thanks naked pastor for opening up a place for it to be discussed.

Freedom, what a concept!

I think you are right that our institutional christendom in the West is largely managed spirituality in which the church has been hijacked by a group of people with one set of gifts (pastor/teachers) and homogenizing behavior, culture, and style is more important than service to God and our neighbors. Building monolithic “sanctuaries” using institutions that look more like corporatins than communities has become the prison we worship in, tying up man-hours and financial resources needed to actually fulfill the Great Commission.

I think the reason it it is hard to marry freedom with community, however, is because our definitions of freedom and community may not be how God defines them.

Galations 5 says this:

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.
11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!
13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

So I think we are truly free – but freedom is to be used to love God and love our neighbors. And I would argue that only when we are committed to truly loving each other in community can we effectively love our neighbors and meet their practical needs (James 1). As social creatures committed to serving God and our neighbors, how hard can community be if we quit seeing community through the “church-filters” we’ve being seeing the world through for most of Church history? Seeing God, freedom, and community without churchianity’s filters is the hard part…

I may not be very articulate but hopefully that makes sense…?