The Church of Christ Needs Community

Studies on religious conversion, and my own personal experience, suggest that people convert not because they're logically convinced of a new religion, although that's often a prerequisite, but because their social connections inside it begin outweighing their social connections outside it. If a person's spouse, especially a husband, and child convert to Christianity then that person is also likely to convert (assuming they find the religion reasonable).

Given this reality, the church should focus its energy primarily on building relationships with people before assuming they'll convert. Preaching to people we don't have a personal connection with is only meaningful when trying to reach an exceptional individual who'll convert for non-normal reasons, (even it might also inadvertently inspire some normal people to search for a path into Christian community). However, we shouldn't assume that individuals will be baptized simply because they've heard and believed. Most people need social support, and most biblical conversions were primarily group decisions rather than individual ones. The 3,000 baptized on the day of Pentecost were baptized as a group, they didn't slowly filter into the water after each individual had gone home and spent the night meditating on the logic of Peter's message. Most of the European ethnic groups, into which the majority of modern Church of Christ members were born, converted as nations or clans rather than as individuals. This isn't meant to suggest individual conversions don't happen, but to point out that most humans are too weak to make monumental decisions, like conversion, without help. This isn't meant as an insult to "most humans," the weakness humans feel in this regard is socially healthy because it helps maintain stability by discouraging people from acting in anti-social ways. In other words, conformity is generally a good thing (unless you're conforming to a non-Christian society).

I'm not implying that we should befriend people simply to convert them. Friendship is a mysterious thing. The bonds that connect people can rarely be faked for the purpose of dunking them in baptism. We should, however, use the organic connections and attractions God puts into our lives to move people towards conversion, and we should do a better job of integrating those we know into a society of Christians towards which they can switch their allegiance. We all make contact with people we naturally like, or have a special attraction to, and we should take advantage of these connections to integrate them into the church.

Of course, the biggest problem is that most Christians are too weak to integrate others into their society and worldview, and young people especially are more often integrated out of the church via connections with outsiders. There are numerous reasons for this, and many of them are currently non-reversible forces that arose in the false-Enlightenment period of the late 1600s and 1700s. Our current society has been historically unique in that it can sustain incredible levels of immorality without collapsing because our technological innovation has kept pace with moral rot. We couldn't have had the sexual revolution without mass produced birth control.

However, there are weaknesses in modern secular society we can exploit to our advantage, and the most obvious of these is the atomized lonely wasteland that our hyper-individualistic immoral technological "society" has produced (and is ever accelerating the production of). Individualists don't form communities, technology renders community logistically unnecessary, and immorality renders impossible the social trust necessary to form community. Most humans will probably be content to stay inside and waste their lives watching Netflix, playing video games, and eating carry-out. For now, there's little hope for these mindless consumer drones who Frederick Nietzsche and Francis Fukuyama labeled "last men." However, there are many humans who feel the gnawing emptiness of their lives and seek true communal meaning. Has the church created a community into which these people can escape?

Christianity was always built as an exit: an exit from servitude to mammon, an exit from servitude to sin, an exit from the Darwinian rat race of biological life. Christianity is now the exit from cold technological materialistic emptiness. Christianity is an exit through which our bodies cease to be animalistic evolutionary machines and become temples for the Holy Ghost.

There are ways that we as a church can accelerate our development into a proper exit and become the community people need. Firstly, we must master technology. We might imagine that technology serves us, but try turning off your phone, computer, or television for two days. You're not in control. Technology isn't merely a tool, it's a way of thinking, it's an autonomous force. If we never learn to limit technology's power than it will continue controlling and isolating us from real human community.

Secondly, assemblies must be made to serve man instead of man being made to serve assemblies. Yes, we come together to worship God, but we worship God by fellowship and communion. If our assemblies aren't fostering fellowship and communion then they cease to be forming the church. The biblical first-century assembly of the saints was primarily about "breaking bread" and participating in the "love feast." Eating together is about fellowship and communion, and it's not about listening to lectures while sitting around in formal clothing looking stiff. In other words, the assembly of the saints was never supposed to be centered around the cold in-take of logical information. There's a joke circulating online about how Church of Christ Bible studies should be renamed "creed rehearsals." This is often an accurate portrayal of our Bible studies because they commonly devolve into sermons that merely rehash ad nauseam the same set of issues (anti-instruments, anti-Catholicism, baptism, etc). Why are we not using Bible study to pursue membership bonding around a shared respect for the Bible? Why aren't we interacting more and having conversations (perhaps in smaller groups)?

Thirdly, we should meet together in person as much as possible. How much of the average American's time is now spent alone? Single person households have increased dramatically over the last few decades, we spend most of our free-time watching television or browsing the internet, and statistically we eat half our meals alone. For the church to constitute an attractive and meaningful alternative community we at least have to do better than secular society (which isn't a high bar). After graduating from a Christian college, I found that more of my college friends were congregating at bars than at church on Sundays and Wednesdays. Part of this was because there were no active young adult groups for them to spend time with. Having known many of those, now lost, college grads, I do believe many of them would have stuck around longer if they'd felt church was a viable social alternative to the bars and nightclubs (maybe not, but now we'll never know). The post-graduation years are among the most precarious for young people who don't find a mate in college. Church becomes a married couple's game after university, and part of that has to do with the church's mindset towards "hanging out."

Fourthly, we should involve ourselves in the neighborhood. People can't be drawn to Christianity through social links if they don't even know who we are. If people already know a church from its volunteer commitments and investments in the neighborhood then the transition from secular society to church society becomes easier for them. Sometimes, the most effective evangelism a church can do in post-modern America is to remain visible.

Fifthly, we need to teach our members, and especially our young people, about Christian history. History is among the most crucial ways a community builds identity from generation to generation. The Church of Christ is especially negligent in this area because we regard ourselves as non-denominational and without traditional links to the past. We like to imagine that our group just spontaneously generates from the Bible in every new generation. While this myth has a certain appeal in that it makes us seem logical and correct ("the truth will assert itself"), the appeal isn't worth the cost because its neither true nor desirable. The Church of Christ exists in the twenty-first century because of cross-generational teaching, institutions, and family commitments. Furthermore, Christians need to psychologically perceive themselves as belonging to an epic story. A strong narrative identity inspires commitment, sacrifice, and direction.

Our world is likely entering a period of greater liquid modern chaos, loneliness, and immorality. The Church of Christ needs to do a better job preparing for this storm by building community and mastering technology, meeting together in person, involving ourselves in our physical neighborhoods, and teaching our members to take their place in the greater Christian story. Will we rise to meet the future? Or, will we continue silently decaying into extinction?