Suburban Lifestyle

Christians who want to do the One Another Stuff face a serious obstacle. Modern suburban culture creates barriers to communication and encourages individualism. As communities are breaking down and fear is rising, high fences are going up between houses isolating people from each other. The consequence of this isolation is that most Christians do not belong to the community where they live.

Western society has been shaped by the automobile and the church has gone along for the ride. The car has brought great freedom, but we have paid a great price in loss of fellowship. Church has become something that we drive to. We usually have to get into a car to go to our home group, cell group or house church. This severely weakens the relationships between Christians, so most modern churches are almost as socially fragmented as the rest of society.

The close fellowship of the early Church was only possible because people lived close to each other. Building strong relationships is difficult, if we only meet once a week. We cannot "encourage one another daily", as the scriptures require (Heb 3:13). The sharing that was normal in the New Testament is difficult if people who do not live close to each other. For example, sharing a lawnmower is difficult for people who live far apart.

The best witness for Jesus should be the change in our lives, but for that to happen, people must see us living. At work our behaviour will be constrained by the requirements of our employer, so people really need to see us living when we are free to be ourselves. They need to see us living together where they live.

Church is something we are,
not something we can attend.