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Community-- God's Antidote to an Isolated Society

Never in my lifetime have we been more connected, yet more socially isolated than we are today.  Facebook, Twitter, Google+, texting, e-mail, have all made it easier to stay in touch, albeit in what seems a very artificial manner.  The voice call has faded into the background, in favor of the previously-mentioned tools of communication, largely because they make it easier to control the direction and duration of our communications.  To talk to someone on the phone in real time, it seems, is to make oneself vulnerable to certain pitfalls, like confronting a subject we would rather not discuss, or just the mere slip of the tongue, where we say something we did not intend.  Or maybe we are just trying to avoid the person who dominates the conversation.

So strong is this trend, that the land-line telephone is fading from existence, joining the fax machine as an outmoded method of communication.  According to marketingcharts.com, a Pew report from March of last year indicates that only 14% of all teens said they talk to friends on a landline phone on a daily basis, down from 30% in 2009.  This has led many, even elder folks, to abandon the landline phone altogether, in favor of the more mobile, cellular alternative.

So why is this detrimental to the cause of Christ?  Because in God's family, our tasks require community, and community only takes place when we get together.  That being said, our staff has come up with an innovative way of at least staying in touch with each other through a web experience called The Table, when circumstances won't allow us to physically be in the same place.  You will be hearing more about this in the weeks to come.  Please understand, we are not suggesting that this, or any other electronic means can fully substitute for getting together.  But it does provide a way to interact with each other in our calendar-driven, socially-limited culture.

This Sunday, I will be teaching on how these challenges affect our worship.  We will look at a mostly-overlooked statement of Jesus in Matthew 15 where He describes how we can worship God in vain.  In light of what community means to our worship, it is a startling revelation.  I hope you will join us as we explore it.