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Chapter 2:

 BUILDING DYNAMIC FAITH COMMUNITIES

HUMAN CONTEXT

The Christian community is a community among other communities.  In Asia, most of the Christian communities are in the minority. Generally, they are the product of the missionary-colonial expansion. As a result many of these Christian communities in different countries suffer from ‘mission-compound mentality’. Such a community is usually reactionary and conservative, defensive, apologetic and sometimes polemical.  Such an attitude and action produce its own reactions.  They become isolated from the larger sphere of life and action.  This has been the bane of many Christian communities across Asia.  They want to live like an ostrich with its head in the sand.  This has resulted in fear and suspicion on the part of other communities.  Such a ‘minority complex’ cannot be congenial towards building dynamic faith communities in Asia.

Such a situation has given rise to open conflicts and even, violence, such as in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Before we blame, accuse and point fingers at other communities for such opposition it is necessary that Christian communities and their leaders engage in self-examination and assessment.  How much are we responsible for such a conflictual context?  Have we expressed solidarity with the larger issues affecting and afflicting Asia in general and the particular country?  Or are we too preoccupied with non-issues?  Are we listening and learning from other communities?  Is there mutual respect and understanding?  The more fundamental question is how to build dynamic faith communities in the different countries in

 

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 which we are located.  In such a dilemma, we need to turn to the Bible and seek guidance.  It will not have direct answers to our modern, Asian predicament.  We do not look for divine directives but for directions that will help us.

 

OLD TESTAMENT BACKGROUND

The ancient Jewish people were engaged in building and re-building their community in the midst of plurality of communities. For this they had to be displaced, had to become refugees but they returned to rebuild with renewed strength and vigour.

In this painful-joyous process, God was with them. Their strong faith enabled them to overcome problems and empowered them to reconstruct.  They took as their pledge, “Let us rise up and build.”53

The ancient Jewish people had done a lot of building for the Pharaohs in Egypt.  But that was slave labour to build the famous pyramids of Egypt.  Thus they were quite used to active work and it was this work that kept them together, galvanised them to further liberating action. Indeed it was a blessing in disguise. In and through this active process they were ever mobilising, organising, grouping and regrouping, themselves in the midst of their nomadic, wandering life.  It was a community around the temple.  It was most important for them.  It was at one time, the sacred sanctuary of ancient Israel. 

Both Nehemiah and Ezra were busy organising the community and making sure of its distinctiveness.  The people built the wall and the ruined temple.  Ezra also required the Jews to divorce foreign wives.54 That was an action to keep the ‘purity’ of the community!

Nehemiah was appointed governor of Jerusalem for twelve years.  During this period the wall was built. Then he engaged in reform in 432 BC when he realised that the economic and social condition of the people was not good.55 The Persians

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53  Nehemiah 2:18b and 20 b; Malachi 1:4

54  Ezra 9:9; 10:3ff

55  Nehemiah 13

 

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 had Jewish children as slaves in payment of debts. Interests on loans were also being taken.  He was engaged in strengthening, the community by repopulating the city.  He took rigorous action against the rich and stopped Sabbath-trading.  But he was also against inter-religious, interracial, inter-cultural marriage like Ezra’s.  But that was thousands of years ago and the community was, itself broken and fragmented. As tribal communities as well as an agricultural community, they had their own set of problems under their colonial masters. 

Some positive and negative examples of community-formation under Ezra and Nehemiah include: Nehemiah 3 for the detail of the building-work; chapter 4 records the opposition to the building-project and shows how builders had to become fighters; chapter 8 records Ezra reading the law of Moses to the people and thus strengthening their faith in Yahweh; and chapter 9 documents a public confession of sin.  Generally, Nehemiah was a staunch defender of the faith of his ancestors.  He wanted the people to obey and make a promise to follow that faith.  He thought that in this way he could unite the community and build it into a dynamic instrument in the hand of Yahweh.

We find a similar line of thinking in Ezra.  He was also concerned about the community and wanted it to become strong and faithful. This was particularly after their return from exile in Babylon.  This was the period of restoration and strengthening of their ancient faith.  This was the ‘remnant’ that had returned and their faith had to be fortified.  Their faith gave birth to hope for the future and that became the fundamental basis of their community-formation.  This faith not only had a past and present but more importantly it became forward-1ooking.  This made their community hopeful and brave. They were not afraid.

 

APOSTOLIC WITNESS

Peter, Paul, James, Barnabas and many others were pioneers of the Christian faith.  They realised that they had to slowly but surely build the community, which was in its embryonic state.  At that initial stage, it needed careful nurture

 

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 and training. For them the first, essential ingredient of an authentic community is fellowship, koinonia.

Now the company (community) of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.56

For them faith and fellowship belonged together. Christian faith is fundamentally a fellowship creating and enhancing reality.  Jesus had made them relational and communitarian and thus part of the world around them.  This means that they could not be individualistic, non-relational and otherworldly.  I have already referred to their early, Herculean effort to build an inclusive, open community, characterised by justice and impartiality.  Through a democratic process at the Council in Jerusalem, the ancient apostles together decided to remove the obstacle of circumcision.  That was a great step forward.

That ancient koinonia or community was based on kerygma or proclamation.  We should not think of this exercise as a one-way, undemocratic process. It was in fact sharing the good news (gospel) and equipping the people with tools and skills. Paul’s preaching in Athens was preceded by preparation and observation.  He learned about the context and then opened his mouth to speak to the people. First there was koinonia or fellowship with the local, ‘non-Christian’ community in Athens and then kerygma took place. 

In their sharing of the good news of God in Jesus, they talked about their community.  For this they used basically four words or phrases, which are relevant for our discussion. Firstly, the apostles talked about ‘growing into’.  They repeat this phrase several times in different situations. Writing to the Ephesians, the author asserts,

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56 Acts 4:32

57 Ephesians 2: 21-22

 

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In him (God) the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord (Jesus); in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.57

If we read few more verses of the same chapter we are struck by the architectural organic metaphors and symbols.58 Thus building a faith community’ is, not only a physical activity, but a theological-ethical frame of mind, learning to become one in spirit and action. This building, therefore, is a physical-spiritual phenomenon.  Such verses affirm building a faith community with diversity and difference. The chapter states that we have to break down the dividing wall of hostility or partition.59  So to build, it is necessary to break. In another chapter of the same epistle, it is stated:

...to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until all of us come to the unity of the faith. . . to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.  We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about...60

There are sufficient instructions in this chapter about building a dynamic faith community.  Nothing about it is mechanical or conventional.  It demands maturity and responsibility.  This means it is not an inward-looking community, which is selfish and aggressive.  On the contrary, an open, inclusive community must respond to or be sensitive about the real, grassroots, ground-reality. Such a community must develop richness in thinking and action and tap various possibilities as suggested by the above verses.  The unity it aspires for the community is not uniformity.  It is not a mathematical unit or an arithmetical one. It is a unity that encourages and promotes plurality of expressions. The body is one but it has many, many parts.  The community of faith in the ancient world was referred to as “the Body of Christ”. We discover a similar language in the letter of Paul to the Colossians,

...holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.61

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58 There are different translations with slight variations – “As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into”. (Jerusalem Bible); “the whole building is bonded together”, (New English Bible); “properly fitting into his neighbour” - J. B. Phillip).

59 Ephesians 2:14

60 Ephesians 4:12-14a

61 Colossians 2:19

 

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Therefore, even when we are attempting to build a dynamic faith community, we need to be God-driven and God-dependent. It is in fact human-divine collaboration. It is not God-given and predetermined. The text is using a biological language to understand the building process- ligaments (tissues connecting bones) and sinews (source of strength). It is a gradual growth and evolution and does not happen by fate of fiat.

Secondly, the ancient apostles used the vocabulary of ‘building up’ in several of their letters.  To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”62 or again, “the Lord has given me (authority or power) for building up and not for tearing down”.63 This language is repeated by Paul writing to the Thessalonians, “Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing”.64  These references make us realise that building a community requires thinking (knowledge and intelligence); feelings (emotion and devotion); as well as willingness (to act positively on our commitment).  Head, heart and hands have to be combined to make this possible.65

Thirdly, related to ‘growing into’ and ‘building up’ is the idea of ‘up-building’, which reflects the quality and character of building a faith community. ‘The ancient author asserts, “Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up-building”66 or “strive to excel in them for building up the church”.67 Thus building up gives solidity and stability to a community life. It requires equipment, maturity and responsibility as well as the ‘fullness’ of Christ if it is to be a Christian community.  The early Christians were actively engaged in community formation.  Indeed we have to pattern our community formation accordingly. It has to be carefully and prayerfully made.

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62 I Corinthians 8:l

63 II Corinthians 13:10b

64 I Thessalonians. 5:11

65 The old English for encouraging and building up is to edify, which has the connotation of education and enlightenment.  Some of the other translations of the two words are helping, cheering, strengthening, hearten, fortify.  Indeed building up involves all these

66 Romans 14:19

67 I Corinthians. 14:12b; see also Ephesians. 4:16b

68 Ephesians 2:22; Colossians 2:7; I Peter 2:5

 

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Fourthly, the common vocabulary in most of the apostolic witness is ‘built into’.68 I have taken these words from the apostolic writings to illustrate their communitarian thrust.  We are indeed struck by their organic, relational language and life.  There was dissension and even division in the early church community as demonstrated in their epistles.  Precisely for this reason, they were constantly pleading, appealing for their larger, stronger and stable unity.  In the final analysis, the community must be rooted and grounded in Christ, not in a narrow, exclusive sense but for the larger cause and commitment.

 

GOSPEL TRUTH

After thirty years of prayer and preparation Jesus commenced his ministry. He did not do it all alone by himself.  From the beginning, Jesus began to build a faith community. He formed a core group of twelve, which was a nucleus. Obviously, this core did not or was not allowed to become obsequious or a coterie of Christ.  One was a member of the Zealot Party, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, hoping that he would be a political messiah.  Another, the beloved disciple, Simon Peter denied Jesus three times while Thomas entertained a serious doubt about the value and, veracity of Jesus.  James and John had their own ‘hidden agenda’ to follow Jesus.  But they were exposed and condemned.69  Such was the scenario of the early Christian community. They took a long time to learn the nature and purpose of the community that Jesus was shaping.  Their stereotype and straightjacket thinking did not work.

What is clear from the ministry of Jesus is that as much at he was interested in and concerned about individual followers, his basic message was about the KINGDOM OF GOD.  There is no uncertainty or ambiguity about this. Jesus came to show us the community of God-fearing people, what it should be like?  What are its goals and functions or its nature and content?  So when we are thinking of building a faith-community, we must base it on kingdom values and vision, kingdom ideas and ideals as enunciated by Jesus himself.  All the four gospels testify to it very powerfully and effectively.  We cannot miss it.

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69 Mark l0: 35-45

 

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Mathew’s gospel was interested in the messianic kingdom. In the context of the Kingdom of God, Jesus talks about the hungry, thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the prisoner and the sick and affirms, ‘Truly, I tell you just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’70  Translated into our modern language, it would imply socio-economic political action, leading to justice and liberation.  This means in our time, structural-systemic changes that will make people independent and self-reliant.  Such is the radical requirement of a dynamic community in formation71 .

In the Mark’s narratives, the references to the kingdom are brief and comprehensive72 but the divine demand and direction is explicit.  It is compared to a small seed particularly, a mustard seed which is very small but has tremendous potential.  Thus the kingdom is given in its seminal embryonic form; ultimately it is what we make of it. 

In the Luke’s version of the gospel, there are similar verses about the kingdom.  The writer mentions about the gospel of the kingdom73. So also he mentions, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and these things (worrying about food and clothing), will be given to you as well.’74 We must first decide our priority, perspective and proper balance in life.  Then we can go about building.  We should pay heed to this warning.  The community that we are striving for has to be material-spiritual; human-divine; religious-secular-democratic.  That indeed is the challenge. 75

Finally, in the narration of John, there is a unique addition.  It is not found in the synoptic gospels.  Jesus asserted;

Truly, truely, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above (anew)...unless one is born of water and the spirit; he cannot enter the kingdom of God.76

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70 Matthew 25:40

71 There are other texts in Matthew about the kingdom for example Matthew 3:2; 5:3,10,19-20; 6:33; 9:35; 24:14; 19:23-24.

72 For example Mark 1:15; 3:24; 4:11; 9:1,47; 10:14-15; 23-25; 11:10

73 Luke 8:1

74 Luke 2:31

75 Luke also uses parables for the kingdom: Luke 13: 18, 20; 14:15-24.

76 John 3:3,5.

 

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This is a prerequisite for a faith-community.  This born-again experience is much used and abused phenomenon in the life of the historical church.  According to Jesus, this is conversion, repentance, metanoia.  It is a radical reorientation of life and action, displacement of existing outlook and reversal of values.  It is not an experience of having a monopoly on Jesus and making him one’s private property.  It is not an individualistic, non-relational, anti-world experience.  But becoming a theological-ethical member of a dynamic community of people under God in Jesus. It is not an exclusive experience but opens one up to the energy and Power of God who can ‘move mountains’ and ‘turn the world upside down’. 77

 

THEOLOGICAL-ETHICAL AFFIRMATION

Building a dynamic faith community is a venture and an adventure.  It is an exciting exercise undertaken by committed people, inspired and challenged by God.  In Asia this is a tremendous responsibility. Many of our communities are characterised by caste, tribalism, fundamentalism and narrow-mindedness.  We are prone to live in homogeneous, monolithic, in-grown communities.  But the God of the Bible calls us to larger, inclusive, heterogeneous, pluralistic communities.  We have to express solidarity and be at one with the stream of life and not be withdrawn and escape from real reality in the name of religion.  In the Old Testament, the ancient Jewish people did misunderstand the ‘chosen’ character of their community.  It was conceived in terms of privilege and power and not in terms of sharing and caring.  God had to reveal through their seers and sages the authentic nature and quality of a God-fearing community.  They had to learn slowly but surely.

In the New Testament, we find Jesus calling his immediate disciples, to the vision of the kingdom of God. Such a community is open-ended and free and liberated from clericalism, consumerism, patriarchy and hierarchy.  Such a ‘kingdom’ is not to be confused with Christendom or feudal structure. Faith community must be founded on justice, equality and love as demonstrated in the Bible in general and by Jesus in particular. It must transcend sociological conditioning and aspire to be a

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77 Matthew 17:20-21; Acts17:6b

 

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powerful theological-ethical community. Thus, according to the Bible, God calls us to be a community, having communion among ourselves and working actively for the larger unity of humanity.  We have no reason in Jesus to be parochial and myopic in our community-building effort.

 

QUESTIONS FOR GROUP DISCUSSION

 Is the Church or the Christian community in your country an alternative to the dominant community?  Why yes or why no?

 What can the Church or the Christian community in your country do, to bring about necessary ethical changes to the larger whole?

 How can the Christian community and the secular society in your country work together to bring about much-needed socio-economic-political transformation?

 

FIELD STUDY

Make a thorough study of a small, local community, may be in a village.  Find out the exact nature of their work, the working conditions, wage differences, gender and age ratio, etc.  How do they relate economics to ethics? What are the difficulties and problems they face?  What are the compulsions and constraints?  Do they enjoy full freedom in terms of their choice for career, education, employment, marriage etc?

 

QUOTATIONS FOR PERSONAL AND GROUP REFLECTION

Christianity contributed to the rise of the modern world. The modern world in turn, undermined Christianity.  Christianity has become its own gravedigger.  There is complete neutralisation of the modern Church by subversion from within.  Christianity is now becoming captive to the very modern world it helped to create.  The philosophical strength of Christianity lies in its claim to truth, whereas the social strength of Christianity, on the other hand, lies in its challenge to tension.  Most

 

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Christians have no trouble in seeing themselves as ‘believers’.  They may be vague about what they believe, and vaguer still about why they believe, but they believe.  Few have looked into the deeper dimensions of the nature of believing.  Church’s preoccupation with credibility (an intellectual problem) and neglect of plausibility (a problem with social dimensions as well) is typical of her witness.  Without a feel for the social dimension of believing, the Church is like a person paralysed from the neck down.

How wild is the Bengal tiger in the wildlife park?  How wild is wildlife in captivity?  There is a taming of religion in the modern world, amounting to a private preference, a spare time hobby, a leisure pursuit - domesticating the untameable world of the spirit.  Modernisation produces a cleavage between the public and the private spheres of life and focuses the private sphere as the special arena for the expression of individual freedom and fulfilment.  People switch convictions as easily as television channels.  Individuals are free to build a world of their own to their hearts content - so long as they rock none of the boats of the real world. The weakness of the charismatic movement is not that renewal starts in the private world, but that it ends there too.  It is privately engaging but socially irrelevant.  ‘Jesus is Lord’, they may declare but what do they demonstrate?  Little better than a spare-time faith and a pocket discipleship.  The once wild animal may roar, but safely behind bars.

 

REFERENCES

Bellah, Robert “The Role of the Church in a Changing Society”, in Currents in the Theology and Mission, June 1990.

Christian Conference of Asia, (EACC) Christian Community within the Human Community, Hong Kong. 1964

 

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Gustafson, James, M., Treasure in Earthen Vessels: The Church As a Human Community, 1961

Guinness, Os, The Gravedigger File: Secret Papers on-the Subversion of the Modern Church, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1983