Community Revisited

I've mentioned my love/hate fascination with community. I've tried to understand it, I've tried to be a part of it, and I've read a few dozen books on it. I can quote a lot of people on it, I know that it is a necessary component of the Christian faith, and yet, I'm still at a loss for it. I've blamed it on where I've lived, those around me, my own ineptness at being inviting and engaging to others, and wonder if it really is possible to be in a community where everyone contributes and fits in.

Supposedly, it can happen. Supposedly all one has to do to build community is:

1. Affirm one another's strengths, abilities and gifts

2. Affirm one another's equal importance to Christ.

3. Affirm one another through visible affection.

4. Sharing one another's space, good, and time.

5. Sharing one another's needs and problems

6. Sharing one another's beliefs, thinking and spirituality.

7. Serving one another through accountability

8. Serving one another through forgiveness and reconciliation

9. Serving one another's interest rather than our own.

And there you have it, instant community. Now why is it I struggle so much? Why is it I feel this is all just a fairy tale?

(HT. Tim Keller Gospel in Life )