Many people in our society feel very alone. Our sense of community has been eroded by many things. People often don’t work near family. So interacting with family face-to-face is very infrequent. The internet and social media was meant to get people together. It has had the opposite effect. We substitute virtual contact for actual contact. We can retreat to a room alone and be anonymous in our interacts online. We are built to need in person contact, but that kind of contact can be very messy. It is harder in some ways, so we accept an unacceptable substitute. The result is feeling very alone. Even our housing magnifies our isolation. We have fences. We maybe drive into a garage and close the door behind us. We don’t have much community with our neighbors.
Another factor is the loss of community that comes with Church. Being a part of a congregation and interacting with people and having a place of interaction for our children is substituted for by many things including sports which doesn’t quite do the same thing.
I do not endorse joining a church merely for community, but it could be a starting place. Megachurches need to work to create community space. When a worship service gets to a certain size, you quickly feel lost in a crowd. Typically they use small group bible studies or small fellowship groups to meet the need. A smaller church can have both real Sunday morning community and small groups. In the end, a church should be selected because it meets the spiritual needs of the whole family and it is true to the Word of God.
Still, there is a level of community that transcends simply getting together at a congregation. This community manifests itself in the congregation, but it goes much farther. When God gets through to us so that we know that we are sinners and unworthy of eternal life with God, but that Jesus lived a perfect life and voluntarily was crucified where we experienced spiritual death (being forsaken by His Father), and that we can receive the benefit of what Jesus did by being connected to Him through baptism; then we become a part of something much bigger than ourselves, or our congregation, or our denomination. We become a part of something that is both worldwide and heavenwide. We are part of the “Body of Christ”.
We may be lonely, but we are never alone. Anywhere. On one level we are intimately connected to God.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
John 17:20-23 (ESV)
This can be a confusing paragraph. It is Jesus’ prayer that all of His believers be interconnected “in Him”. “In Him” refers to a mystical/spiritual/supernatural connection that is either caused by the Holy Spirit or actually is the Holy Spirit. This connection with Jesus confers absolute sinlessness before God, it negates the need to experience spiritual death ever, it makes God our Father, it inhabits us with the Holy Spirit for our protection and empowerment, it allows Jesus to work directly through us, it slowly transforms us so that we can control our sinful nature and become more like Jesus in our personality qualities, it slowly moves us to a common understanding of truth, it integrates us into the mission of God on Earth, and it gives us a common destiny after our death of Heaven and eventually the New Earth.
That is a lot. One more. It makes every Christian everywhere (even those in Heaven) our brothers and sisters. We may have little else in common, but we have the main thing in common. And I contend that you can feel it.
Our congregation helps people with rent, power bills, and water bills. When I come across people who are also Christian, even though there may be significant differences in economic status, skin color, and theology, there remains a connection through our being part of the Body of Christ. I feel it. I think they do too.
I once went to India. Almost everything was different for me. As I met with Indian Christians, the differences didn’t matter. We were one.
I think this can help with loneliness. If you are a believer, seek others. Maybe there are differences. Do those differences matter to you? Do remember that any believer also still has a sinful nature. That may hang out some time. Yours might as well. Do remember that Jesus described His followers as sheep with Him as a shepherd. Sheep are flock animals. We need each other.
If you are not a believer, don’t conclude immediately that this is not for you. If God has brought you to a point where you are at least open to hear about Jesus. God may reach you in a way you never anticipated. You may have been foreknown and chosen by God to be a part of the Body of Christ.
Giving Christ 