A Different Community

We are not Christians because of what we believe, but because we have been called to be disciples of Jesus. To become a disciple is not a matter of a new or changed self-understanding, but rather to become part of a different community with a different set of practices." (Stanley Hauerwas as quoted in The Missional Leader)

When I first read that, I was reminded of this passage from James:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?  If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,  and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.  (James 2:14-17)

I don't mean to compare a new or changed self-understanding to faith, but instead to point out that we become Christians because we follow Christ.  We live as Christ has called us to live, in relationship to community.  Because Christ calls us - showed us - we feed people, we cloth people, we love people.  These actions stem out of our Christianity, because Christianity is learning from Christ and following Christ.

Our faith, which is born of the grace of God, brings us into relationship with God.  Because of our God-gifted faith, we are able to follow Christ.  In following Christ, we change how we live - to become mas Hauerwas said, "part of a different community with a different set of practices."

We hold so tightly to dogma that it becomes a barrier to living out the life of Christ.  It isn't what we believe, its who we believe in.  And who we believe in changes our actions.