I’m skimming through my dog-eared and marked-up copy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together in preparation for a short series on church life we’re going to preach at GCR in January. And I’m convicted and challenged all over again by Bonhoeffer’s critique of those who love the idea of Christian community more than they love Christian community.

“He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.” 

We should be pursuing the ideals of Christian community. We should think about and talk about and plan for a community in which everyone worships and serves and lives together in the name and manner of our Lord Jesus. But I can’t love that more than I love the actual community in which God has placed me. I can’t love the pursuit of the community more than I love the community itself. I can’t love preaching about the community more than I love the people I am in community with. I can’t love the dream more than I love the messy men and women right here in front of me.

I know Bonhoeffer has the pastor or the church leader in mind when he writes this. He’s talking about preachers who insist on their own way because they know better what the perfect church looks like.

“He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dreams bind people together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.” 

Yes, this is for the preacher. I stand convicted today–again–for the many ways I fall short of Bonhoeffer’s challenge. But this is for all of us. This is for everyone who complains about their church, who gripes about the perceived problems in their church, who fumes over the shortcomings of the people in their church. We all enter the fellowship of our congregations, not as demanders or consumers, but as thankful recipients of God’s gifts. We thank God for placing us with a group of people who all live by his call, by his forgiveness, by his promise. Together. We don’t complain about what God does not give us; we thank God for what he gives us every day. And we realize that embracing the broken people right in front of us in our church leads us more quickly, deeply, and richly into the transformation and spiritual formation for which our God desires.

Peace,
Allan