Christ and Community: Introduction

Stephen Fleming

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I want to share a few thoughts on Christianity and community building. I know this is a big topic discussed for thousands of years, but I want to give my two cents anyway despite not being a trained theologian. In my amateur opinion, I do think that Jesus said that community building was important and it’s how I interpret what he was saying about the kingdom of God. I see this interpretation as similar to how I interpret Joseph Smith’s thought. I thought Elder Uchtdorf’s talk had a lot of wonderful related things to say on the topic and will probably talk more about that in later posts.

In some comments I’ve read in discussing Mormon community building, I recalling hearing things along these lines. Mormons cleaning their buildings isn’t “real” Christian service; the real Christians stuff would be aid to poor people.

I disagree. Yes, serving the poor IS important, but I also see Jesus and Joseph Smith teaching and practicing what I will call a “kingdom” model.[fn 1]. The goal is to get people to join “the kingdom,” in which people (hopefully) live according to Christian ideals, and by doing so, they make the “kingdom” divine. The objective is to create heaven on earth because the people, by living like Christ, make it so. Yes, Christian history and Mormonism come far short of that ideal, but that’s the goal nonetheless.

Proselytizing others into the kingdom is thus a high priority. Proselytizing isn’t selfish. Bringing people into the kingdom of God is (ideally) a great benefit to proselytizes. Not only for getting the best afterlife, but for blessing in this life of living in a holy community.

There are expectations of mutual service on those who enter the kingdom. I think Mosiah 18:8-9 says it most clearly, and I’ll argue that I think Jesus taught similarly. Without mutual service, the members aren’t living up to their commitments. Helping people live up to their covenants helps them become more like Jesus and is thus a benefit to them.

All goods in common was the ideal for both Jesus (I’ll discuss this in a future post) and Joseph Smith, but that’s hard to pull off. Though unsuccessful at community of goods, Mormonism continued to attempt forms of committed aid to each other, which can be a challenge.  In our isolating world, our church still attempts forms of mutual service like helping to move, meals, building clean up etc. I will be arguing that such attempts at mutual service are just as “Christian” as any other activities.

And in our isolated world leading to a rash of deaths of despair, such communal commitments are becoming increasingly vital.

 

[Fn 1] Statements from NT scholar Morton Smith influenced my thinking on this topic, which I’ll post more about, along with a insights from my friend, Mark Ashurst-McGee.

Comments

13 responses to “Christ and Community: Introduction”

  1. Jonathan Green

    I like helping people move. With most problems people have, I can’t do anything useful to help, but moving is an exception. You show up, move boxes from one place to another, and it materially makes their lives better. There are at least a couple members who come to church rarely or never but have shown up on short notice to help someone move in an emergency.

  2. Stephen Fleming

    The central value, I believe, is a kind of community where we show up and help each other, the kind of community that is currently eroding in our society.

    As bishop I worked hard on our “voluteerism” and made it a central goal to try to improve our numbers at moves and other mutual service activities. The numbers did improve so I was happy about that.

    Once we moved a inactive woman in the ward that I didn’t know at all. She wasn’t ready for us (not much was packed) but we had a good turn out, so we managed okay.

    I heard a story later that I felt illustrated what I was trying to accomplish. A woman in the ward said that some young men neighbors (about 20 years old) saw our group and came up and asked her, “Who are you guys?” generally bewildered. She explained and their response was that they were so amazed that a group of people would show up to help an older lady, they said to her, “Okay, tell us about your church.”

    They didn’t join, but in an area like southern California that isn’t very communal, I do think the story does illustrate that a Mormon move is a really lovely thing. So I think that’s a highly valuable form of community building and very Christian.

  3. rogerdhansen

    There are so many things to comment on this post I’m not sure where to start.

    First, in GC there was pride expressed in renewed Church growth. That growth is not happening in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. It’s happening in Africa and South America, in developing countries. Many members and their neighbors are barely surviving. Many have to endure wars, disease, cartels, and famine. Fully half of Church members are living in developing countries.

    Cleaning churches and helping members move is sort of least we can do to help our “neighbors.” Our neighbors are the global members and their neighbors. We need to think bigger and more expansive.

    Second, church cleaning needs to be done by professionals. Particularly during pandemics and the like. Professionals will do a better, more intensive job. We are also taking jobs away from people who may need the work.

    Third, many members have unique skills. Doctors, nurses, builders, engineers, fabricators, teachers, etc. Let’s encourage a more expansive view of “neighbors.”

  4. Stephen Fleming

    You’ve confused me, Roger. People in communities helping each other is a good thing, I’m arguing. There being problems around the world doesn’t negate that. Mutual service and labor is a good thing too.

    My point is that a community of people who covenant with each other is an important Christian attribute.

  5. your food allergy

    I feel strongly that this kind of community building and extending service outside our community is the way forward to make the church feel more relevant in people’s lives and therefore should also be the foundation of missionary work. There is a lot of boredom out there with the church as just a repetition of meetings.

  6. Not a Cougar

    Stephen, I think I understand the thrust of your post, but anytime I think that my service to my fellow middle to upper-middle class Latter-day Saints is particularly Christ-like, I’m reminded of Jesus’s words in Matthew 25:

    31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

    32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

    34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

    35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

    36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

    37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

    38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

    39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

    40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

    I think service to those “in” the Kingdom is an unqualified good, but I feel strongly that the Lord is clearly and particularly interested in how we treat those who are the “least of these” regardless of their “kingdom affiliation.” And I can assure you I’m squarely in the “goat” rather than the “sheep” category when it comes to rendering that kind of service. I can only hope that mercy will indeed rob justice when my turn at the judgement-bar comes.

  7. Stephen Fleming

    Allergy, the Church does encourage community service (yes, we often come up short of the ideal). Missionaries do that also. I’ll be arguing that Christ felt that community building was also really important.

    Cougar, yes I’m planning to argue that this passage is instructions on how those in the kingdom should behave toward each other. I see this as instruction on behavior towards Christ’s “brethren” and Christ said his brethren were those who followed him.

    Of course, being generally kind and charitable is important, but I do think that Christ placed a great emphasis on building the kingdom of God on earth through the instructions like Matt 25.

  8. RLD

    Stephen, I’m with you on cleaning the church building as service, but I sure have to watch my attitude or it turns into an allegory for how NOT to live the gospel. There’s a checklist, and it’s long and overwhelming. We never have enough people, so I feel like I have to accomplish it by my own efforts. But I can’t do it all, so if I’m not careful I go home feeling both guilty for falling short and resentful of what was expected of me.

    Fortunately it responds to the same kind of counter-programming that works for living the gospel in general.

  9. Stephen Fleming

    RLD, I do very much get the point that building clean up isn’t “working” very well in a lot of places and I do very much empathize with how frustrating that feels. What I reject are claims I commonly hear that building clean up is somehow an “unworthy” activity. Totally disagree.

    But yes, as with all the mutual service we do in the church, it needs to be well coordinated. That can be a challenge and when that doesn’t happen, there’s problems. I’m sorry to hear that things aren’t going well in your ward. My understanding is that’s not atypical.

  10. Jonathan Green

    The secret to cleaning the building is to walk through before you start and see what needs to be done. Sometimes you’ll find things needing extra work, but often things are pretty much fine as they are. Our building isn’t huge, but 4+ people can take care of most issues in an hour.

  11. SDS

    My ward has an unusually high number of “down and out” members with various welfare needs, and a few years ago it was decided that these welfare recipients would be asked to clean the building every week. To help supervise and motivate, one bishopric member would be assigned to the task. So was I at the building every Saturday morning with my “merry men,” as my wife affectionately came to call them– all of them seriously challenged in one way or another. Over time, a real feeling of camaraderie developed, and these guys (it was mostly men) came to take pride in doing a good job of cleaning. They also came to care for each other. I recall once when one of them wanted the whole team to gather around so that we could take a picture of our group. Another suggested that we should begin each cleaning session with prayer. (That didn’t actually happen, however.) Our ward doesn’t do it this way anymore and the “merry men” have mostly dispersed, but I am convinced that building cleaning can be a spiritual and Christ-like and community-building activity.

  12. RLD

    To be clear, if I let myself develop a bad attitude while cleaning the church that’s a me problem. The alternatives aren’t complicated: use the checklist for guidance and ideas of what to work on, not a measure of success or failure. Do what I can do, focusing on what is most important right now. Really let go of the rest and trust it will be okay.

    It’s so similar to getting over a legalistic and guilt-driven approach to living the gospel that it’s almost as if someone is trying to teach us something.

  13. Stephen Fleming

    Jonathan, yes, I got a method together of how to approach the cleaning depending on how many people showed up (I would go every week it was our month since that was a big focus of mine). If very few, I’d get the garbages and a few key messy spots. I made it a point not to stay very long, never over an hour. We’d do more if more people showed.

    SDS, that really is a lovely story, and the kind of thing I was always hoping to achieve in the ward. We never got to that level, but things did improve. I noticed quite a difference depending on how many showed up. Around 3: sort of demoralizing. Over 5: better and could get more done. If we got to 8, it was really nice and took on more of a festive quality. People did enjoy seeing each other and we could all take a minor job and be done fairly quickly. That was always the goal, though getting 8 wasn’t very common.

    RLD, to sort of combine these comments, I did learn how to prioritize when few people showed up. But that would sometimes make me frustrated. I did see improved numbers as a success.

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