At a breakfast gathering this last Thursday I stated quite strongly that I have come to a point of change in my life. For so many years I was looking for community. Granted, I have generally sought community as a means to something else… I was long ago struck by Henri Nouwen’s words that, “Ministry is the creation of space for community to develop.” Some of us in these more recent post-critical, post-secular and post-evangelical days use a new framework for such analysis, and we talk about “creating environments for growth and learning.”

I think that has been mostly helpful.

I also think it’s not enough.

I’m no longer seeking community. If I had to rephrase Nouwen I might say this: “Ministry is the creation of spaces where we can journey together toward God.” That doesn’t exclude community, nor does it exclude vulnerability and being present to one another in our humanness. But it does reestablish that what we are about.. what we MUST be about as followers of Jesus.. is something that comes into being around God’s story.

What I have concluded is that an awful lot of people are seeking community who will never find it because it requires an anchor outside ourselves, but in more than a broken, fallen and transitory grouping of people. Worse: it’s too easy for community to become another product we consume as part of our individualistic and self-centered lives. Sorry to say, but this is so obviously the motive for adopting the language of community... or the language of missional... without the reality. We would rather list the menu than do the work of creating the meal. Let’s face it. Creating the meal means questioning our current methods and frames, and possibly repenting of some of the things we have been doing. It requires humility and an openness to deep change. It requires emptiness and a sense of walking into the future naked.

Ok, so, as a good friend asked when I described this change, more briefly than I have done here, “What does that MEAN?” What he was asking was this: “How does one seek God as opposed to seeking community?” Perhaps he was also asking, “What does it look like,” and “How does one know when one has arrived?” although he is sojourner and not likely so concerned with the destination as with the path.

I think the answers to these questions are not so difficult. One seeks God in the ways we have always sought God: through His word, by His Spirit (prayer and reflection) and in community (wherever two or three are gathered..). This latter inclusion might give the impression that I am taking back my earlier statement. “Len, which is it you seek, God or community?” I don’t think it is possible to completely oppose these things, nor would we want to. Rather, it has to do with intention and embodiment. We need to create spaces — environments — that help us get our intention right. If our intention is God, perhaps a circle isn’t a good place to begin. Perhaps a central or forward focus is alright. The space itself should say “sacred” to the group that gathers. If that means candles, use candles. If that means a stone building with stained glass, yes and amen. If that means gathering among the conifers, go for it. We seek God as a community, we don’t seek community to find God.

After creating the space, the next step should be to hear from God. We gather around God. We are a people because of Him, and the first step is to let Him speak. So we pray the Office together, and as part of that work we read the word together, a chapter from the New Testament, and at least a reading from the Old. We continue to pray, then perhaps we wait on God for a response to His word, which may come through a designated leader, or may come through someone else, because God is alive in His people.

If we get these first things right, then I think we discover God in the community. But notice this isn’t a seekers group in the common sense: this is a group of disciples gathered around God, gathered as hearers and learners and apprentices. After we have done this work together, “laborare est orare,” then we are ready to speak to and listen to one another.