We are intricately connected with all members of Christ’s body

Posted by Alan Knox on Feb 14, 2012 in blog links, community, fellowship | 2 comments

Bobby at “Deconstructing Neverland” wrote a wonderful post about our community and fellowship in Christ. The post is called “Quarantine and Community.”

According to his post, Bobby’s family has been going through a time of “quarantine” because of sickness running through the family. This time of isolation helped him think about community in Christ.

At one point, Bobby writes this:

The Body of Christ is not confined to the membership roles of those who gather at a particular location. Even if that is how a person thinks of it, it is not true. We are all inter-connected with one another and we all receive life and instruction from the same source, the Head. My eyes have been opened to the beauty of being a member of the Body of Christ. Even as someone who has abandoned traditional church services and doesn’t have his name on any membership roles, I am still intricately connected with, necessary to and dependent upon the other members of Christ body. As long as I remain attached to Christ the Head I also remain attached to all those who are attached to Him as well. Even if I’m not attached to a pew every Sunday. The fullness of Christ lives in each one of us and in Him we all live and move and have our being…together. We can be separated by wide areas of geography and still be one and share the same life while two others can sit side by side but feel miles apart inside. It all depends on the level at which we abide in Him.

This touches on many of the issues that I’ve been thinking about and writing about lately. Let me make it more specific: Bobby is not officially a member of any “traditional church service,” but – through Christ – he is a member together with those who are part of traditional church services.

I agree that we are intricately connected with everyone who is in Christ, even those that we will never meet. However, like a chain link fence, we are more closely and obviously dependent upon those that are closest to us – those who we interact with as we live our lives together.

If we refuse fellowship with someone who is in Christ and who is also in our lives, then we are refusing to be a channel for Christ and refusing to heed a channel that Christ can use. We are, in effect, hindering the maturity of Christ’s body.

So, how can we practically foster and demonstrate these intricate connections that we have with one another through Christ, even when we are NOT connected to one another through official church membership?