The FAMILY of Faith: The role of community
It is said that the opposite of courage is not cowardice, but conformity. Whether you're part of a friendship group, a family, a workplace, or ethnic community, it can feel like you've got to "fit in" to be "in". And too often, the church has behaved in much the same way. If you don't believe exactly what everyone else believes, you've gotta buy into the group think, or go somewhere else. And so we have thousands of denominations, churches organized around ethnicity, and churches adhere to strict behavioural codes, and every one of them believes they’re the ones who’ve got it right. But is this kind of cult-like conformity what Jesus meant when he prayed for unity among His followers? What if Jesus is inviting us to work for the kind of unity that rejects sameness and embraces the beauty of our diversity? Do we have the courage to do what is required to embrace God’s vision for our community?
