We are living in a truly unique time in the history of the world. From the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800's to the latest Information Age we hopped into in the 1990's, no other generation has faced quite the same challenges we face today with the exception of modern Europe. In some ways the challenges of past generations may have been more difficult than our own (e.g. no running water, no electricity, persecution, oppressively corrupt governments, devastating plagues, etc.). At the same time previous generations could never have imagined facing the challenges we are facing now. The church today has a particular challenge, I believe, when it comes to making disciples. The former American world 200 years ago and European world 300 years ago enveloped Christians in a way of life where everyone had a role, a support system, a family, an enduring community, a place to belong. Today most would acknowledge the need for an enduring community as such but are at a great loss as to how to actually build it. Let me explain.England in the late 1600's was a vastly different world than we experience today; that goes without saying. But just how different it was has a huge impact on making disciples for Christ. Laslett (1984) wrote of that world we have lost some 300 years ago now,
To the facts of geography, being together in one place, were added all the bonds which are forged between human beings when they are permanently alongside each other; bonds of intermarriage and of kinship, of common ancestry and common experience and of friendship and co-operation in matters of common concern. To these must be added those created by conditions of living now vanished so entirely that it is no easy matter to imagine what they felt like. The lack of running water in the dwelling brought people, mostly the women of course, into each other's company several times a day at the well, or pool, or brook. The labour of grinding your own corn by hand made frequent visits to the windmill or watermill a convenience for everyone, from the larger houses to the smaller ones. The want of ready supply of credit at the bank made everyone dependent on his friend, his neighbour or his relative at times when he needed ready money.The world just described is indeed a world we have lost. It is a world that existed in almost eternal monotony generation after generation. Until the Industrial Revolution one generation lived pretty well the same way their ancestors lived 4-5 generations before. There was very little different in village life from one century to the next. That world is hard to imagine and hard to forget. It's over, it's vanished from our common experience, but I do not think it is gone from within us. There is some part of us that longs for the simplicity that enabled community and a part of us that requires it.
Oh for a home, a place, a position in the order of things in which I am needed, wanted, nurtured and loved. A place where I belong and fit. A place that is secure and not going anywhere anytime soon. Sounds boring to some but it sounds essential to me. In fact if we would look at America with an eye toward history we would find that some of the things Americans spend their time doing is done in an effort regain a lost world, in particular...community.
Let's consider athletics for a moment. Why do parents believe athletics are so important to their children's well-being today? Is it because they want their children to get college paid for through athletic scholarships? That is a drive of some for sure. Is it for the confidence it builds in children? That is also a driving force. How about health or sportsmanship or learning teamwork? Are these the root reasons for athletics? Would parents still involve their children in athletics if there was no hope of a scholarship, no obvious effect on their child's self esteem and little value to their physical health? I think so. I think so because the root reason for athletics boils down not to scholarships or confidence or health, but to community.
Why did I always feel a little lonely each time I drove by the droves of people at the Pop-Warner games on Sunday mornings on my way to church? It was because I wanted to be where the people were. I wanted to be a part. I wanted a place among the many. I wanted to be recognized as an important piece of the team puzzle. My greatest takeaway from all my years of athletics was not the coordinated ways I learned to use my body or the relative health I developed, but the deep camaraderie I formed with the other players. As teammates we saw each other everyday through the good semesters and the bad; when coach was even-headed and when he went bonkers. The championships we won meant so much because we won them together. I remember the 3 hour practices, broken bones, and sheer exhaustion on game days...but Oh it felt so good to be needed and to belong! It was all worth it. Parents are concerned today with involving their children in athletics and other extracurricular activities in a large part because they know those are some of the best potential places for their kids to find belonging.
Let's consider school also. Being homeschooling parents my wife and I hear all the time how skittish people are about homeschooling because of the social aspect of it. Parents want their children to socialize well and that is important. School is, for most parents, the place where their children learn the three R's but it is also the place where their children find belonging. Belonging has always been a by-product of groups of students learning together over a period of time but it has never been as important to parents as it is today. Some of our country's greatest leaders were home-schooled and it is doubtful their parents ever worried about their social life. Why? Because community existed outside of school in those days. Where in America today can a person gather with their neighbors 5 days a week, 6-8 hours a day for 12 straight years if not in school? Nowhere! Parents know and have experienced that once their children graduate high school they will never again find the depth of community they found between the ages of 6 and 18. For this reason many parents cannot imagine homeschooling their children even if the public schools imploded. Where else would their children find community?
The communal world has been lost...but it must be regained! I have run into so many people, especially elderly people, who were heavily involved in social organizations in the past but who find themselves without community in their final years. Why? Because in the end an organization is a false and short-lived form of community. Community is not something you go to or sign up for. Community is a way of life. 200 years ago community was a natural part of life. It was a communal world and one could not have escaped from it and lived long any more than one could have escaped from Earth and lived long.
Some see no logic in trying to regain the world we have lost. "We live in the 21st century" they say, "not the 16th". Granted. But what will be the long-term consequences of not regaining that way of life? Not agrarianism per se but communalism. What will be the consequences of prolonged isolation and extreme individualism? I do not believe it is a strong reach to see the connection between a loss of genuine community in early 19th century Europe and the rise of Psychiatry and Psychology as sciences. Is it any wonder that Psychiatry and Psychology first became independently studied sciences during this time? Aristotle didn't study Psychiatry. Roman philosophers did not take courses in Psychology. These sciences are new; as new as the Industrial Revolution. When the world entered the Industrial Revolution it set off such a huge social upheaval in the way people lived that many developed serious mental health problems that could no longer be consoled within the communal community. The communal community was disappearing. I have yet to meet a single individual today whose mental health problems could not be traced back to a breakdown in community at some point. Either the mini-community of the family has broken down or the larger group of families of which it is a part to the 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation.
My concern in this article is not to point the finger at others for their contribution to an unhealthy way of life, but to point to us, the church, for we are contributing no less to a loss of community in our nation than anyone else. Some churches have of course broken the mold but not many. We have adopted the same way of life as the rest of America even though we still wed before sex, avoid drunkenness, preach about righteousness and go to church regularly. Given all of that we are still just as void of community as anyone else and this creates a huge obstacle when it comes to making disciples.
A disciple of Christ outside of a community of Christ is as unhealthy and long-term detrimental to our faith as that of a baby outside of a family. Life cannot continue in any healthy way for a Christian unless he lives within community. I believe the church must take the lead in regaining the communal world we have lost because making disciples depends on it. Scripture confirms, "Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many...The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” (1 Cor.12:14, 21). The church is a body; we need each other.
But how to go about rebuilding genuine Christian community after it has been lost for so long is up for discussion. There is no easy answer. Understanding how we got here is the first part. Moving on to solid solutions is a difficult second. So that's what I would like to do here- contract this conversation out for discussion as to how we as the church can build genuine Christian community again. What do you think?
