“…much grace was upon them all..” Acts 4.33
“Truth is sought and found only in community”, from the preface to Richard Middleton and Brian Walsh’s book, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used To Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age. The authors then add, “…we experience truth most fully, not as solitary individuals, but through healthy relationships with others, and supremely, when we live intimately with God.”
In his VineLine article, The Quest for Community, Gregg Finley writes, "In these circumstances, we tend to give more, and take less. Life-in-community means we are more available to others; we are free to be honest, free to confess our mistakes, open to be encouraged, edified, even inspired by friends. I am persuaded that finding the truth about ourselves and the world around us happens best when we are surrounded by people we care about and who care for us. I know this idea is neither new nor astonishing. But let it “hit home,” and it has a special poignancy about it. Happy is the person whose life is renewed daily because she belongs to a genuine community of faith.”
I continue to be amazed by the unity found in the Bible regarding the topic of community and even more amazed at how the organized church continues to miss it. We work to counter paradigms built on old structures by implementing new structures - leading only to frustration on both sides. When will we learn?
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