If I had a choice about what time and place I would like to live in – I think 1950s America would feature near the top of my list. Films like Hitchcock’s Vertigo give us a glimpse into a society where all the men wore suits with hats; the lady’s wore elegant dresses with long gloves – nothing saucy and revealing like you see the women wearing nowadays. I think there was something pleasant about the 1950s – a sense of coming together and re-building, just after the war. The women seemed to mostly stay at home and look after the kids – unlike today were most of the women have full time jobs. To top it all off – there would have been more of a sense of community during those days than we see today, I believe.
Returning back to more recent times, we now take a peak into Cajun society with films like Southern Comfort and The Big Easy. Southern Comfort is the story of a group of National Guardsmen on training in the swamps of Louisiana. They get into a spot of trouble with the local Cajun society and it goes from there. Although this film is rather violent, there is a scene towards the end of the movie in which two of the National Guardsmen get a ride into the village centre on the back of a truck with a pig. There is then a celebration when the people gather together in the village from the neighbouring areas. They sing, dance, play music, eat, drink and party! What a wonderful view of community life!
The Big Easy is a great film starring Dennis Quaid as a cop whose wayward methods have caught the attention of the internal affairs department. There is a scene in which the Cajun community get together at a big house, play music, dance, eat and party! I think that a person could really build a good, organic church in such a community. Unfortunately, such a community seems so far removed from what I see in modern-day, Lonely London.
I wonder if Christians are attempting to adapt home-church models to a society which has experienced catastrophic community decline. If this is the case – I don’t think it will work. But I believe that a look at how community has broken down over the years, and people have become more isolated and “me” focused, shows us why organic church models might not be working as well as we would hope. I know that pondering ideals won’t do anything to make the situation better. But I think this journey into Hollywood and the Big Screen might shed some light on the matter.
Organic Christian communities do exist and some of them are wonderful. There are even mega-churches like Hillsong London that seem to work – but they are not for everyone. The institutional church can be something of a false environment, undergirded by a religious edict that states you must go to church every week – because a Bible verse says you should.
I like what I hear on The God Journey podcasts which emphasise just loving those people around you and allow relationships for form naturally. This is better than frantically looking for other believers who get this message of grace like you do, shunning law-minded Christians, and crying, “I need fellowship.”
I’m not sure we can hope to create a sense of community where that sense of community has broken down. I think we all just need to start from where we are – loving those people around us – not trying to force some sort of model or method into place. Then, we just see what God will do in our midst.
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