michael frost - not community... communitas!

alternative look:

so i went back to study [acts], and i realized that the blissful early days of the jerusalem church were also short lived. in fact, i realized that the inclusivity of sharing possessions, eating together, and gathering under the apostles' teaching, as delicious as it seemed, was actually a contravention of jesus' command for them to take the gospel to the very ends of the earth. as i read on, i realized that the early jerusalem church was in fact a community in transition. once a traveling missionary community of disciples, centered on jesus, it had become a static group, camped in jerusalem. but this was not its intended future. after the persecution that resulted from stephen's bold and offensive ministry (acts 6-7), the church was scattered, and through that dispersion it rediscovered its original mandate: to be a missionary people, a community on the move.

i began to fear that we had lost something important in all our work building community. i began to wonder whether christians don't do well to build community as an end in itself. we build community incidentally, when our imaginations and energies are captured by a higher, even nobler cause. though it took me a while, i came to realize that christian community results from the greater cause of christian mission.

YES!

i think the unity of a shared vision is greater than that of a shared need for something to do on friday nights. etc. (gross generalization i know) - but as in all things, we need to continue to become more missional people driven by grace-gratitude-unto missional hearts.

he adds,

have you ever been on a short-term mission trip overseas and felt such a special, intimate, profound sense of connection with your fellow travelers? when building houses in mexico or working in orphanages in haiti, we connect with other christians at a level entirely different from the one experienced each week in our local church. this isn't just because of the exotic locations or the spicy food. it's because we are in a liminal state. we are not living at home, nor are we really living in mexico. we are in transition - a resident in neither place, really.