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My Favorite Book and My Favorite Quote on Community

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When I was in college, I was introduced to Life Together, a book written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I read it first with a group of students and then led another group of students in an examination of the book. Since then, I have read the book many times and have even used it in some classes at Faith Church. While I have read a number of other books on Christian community, this one has remained my favorite. The context and content of the book make it so powerful nearly 100 years after it was written and relevant for us living in a different land.

The Origin of the Book
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor in Germany when the Nazis rose to power. While many Christians and churches would not resist – or even support – the ideas of the Nazis, Bonhoeffer was part of a group known as the Confessing Church that opposed the Nazis. This group had to establish a seminary to train their pastors, which they did in 1935 in a place called Finkenwalde with Bonhoeffer as the director of this seminary. This seminary did not last long, as the Nazis shut it down in 1937. The disbanding of the school did not mark the end of the seminary’s work and impact, as Bonhoeffer visited the students and graduates and continued to teach them in private lessons. In September 1938, while staying at his parents’ house, he wrote about the vision for community that was brought to and embodied in Life Together

Thus, the story of the book is a reminder of how precious Christian community is, of how blessed we are to have it because it can be opposed and squashed by people in power. In addition, it is a reminder that Christian community happens in the midst of a world that is hostile to Christianity, either through directly opposing it or hijacking it in such a way the people claim to be Christians but have fundamental beliefs that stand at odds with the Christian faith. That puts Christian community in a different frame than we may be used to thinking about.

The Ideas of the Book
The book itself is not very long, only 5 chapters and less than 150 pages, but it is chalked full of deep insights and practical thoughts. The first chapter talks about community itself. Bonhoeffer connects our relationship with God and our relationship with each other, noting that the basis for Christian community is ultimately our union with Christ himself; true community and true unity only come from sharing faith in Christ, with this common faith leading to community. 

The next two chapters show how to balance communal life with the need to be alone, as one chapter talks about the day alone and the day with others. While introverts want to be alone and extroverts prefer to be with other people, Bonhoeffer notes that we need both aspects in our lives to achieve true community, saying both “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community” and “Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.” When we do not have time alone with God, we are actually a danger to our community. When we are not in community, we reject the calling of God upon our lives. Or as Bonhoeffer puts it: “One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.” 

One chapter is entitled “Ministry,’ but it does not focus on those called to pastoral or vocational ministry as you might expect. Instead, Bonhoeffer looks at various ways that Christians minister to each other. One of those ways is the “ministry of biting the tongue” – resisting the urge to say something all the time and to say something without thinking. This is a ministry that I fail to practice a bit too often! Another ministry is that of “listening.” Have you ever considered that you are ministering to a person by listening?

The final chapter is on communion and confession, the latter of which is not something that Protestants think much about (especially those outside of Bonhoeffer’s Lutheran tradition). He notes how it is often easier to confess our sins to God (who is holy) than to our fellow believers (who are not and thus understand our struggles in a different way), which doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. There is a danger in our confessions to God that we really aren’t confessing to Him, but simply to ourselves to help us feel better; that we have given ourselves absolution rather than really experiencing the forgiveness of God. And while we don’t need to confess our sins to another believer (and in particular, a minister), there can be great value in doing so, as that person can be the vessel in which God speaks His word of forgiveness to you. 

My Favorite Quote From the Book
The copy of this book that I have now had for over twenty is heavily marked up with underlines, as there are so many great quotations in this book. It is tough to decide on a favorite, but I think it is this one: “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” 

I like this quote as it is a reminder that sometimes, what gets in the way of community is our expectations of it. We may actually be experiencing community, but because we have some over-idealized or pre-formed perspective on what it should look like, we don’t realize it. Bonhoeffer reminds us throughout the book that community is less than something we create and more something that we find – that we receive from God and we need to receive it on His terms. That does not mean there is nothing that we can do to try to foster community. The latter half of the quote notes what we need to do, which is to love. When we love people around us, community is formed. Thus, one of the most important Bible verses on community is John 13:34: “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another” (CSB). A key practice reflecting and developing love is interceding for each other, as it is an act of kindness to bring a brother or sister before God Himself and ask Him to help them and do what is best for them. 

If you desire community, you don’t need to write a book (even a short one). You simply need to start loving other believers as Jesus loves you, including actively praying for others, and you will enter into God’s vision and design for community. 

Questions about the Bible or theology? Email them to Pastor Brian at Theology@WeAreFaith.org. You can also request to receive weekly emails with our blog posts by filling out the information on the right side.

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