An Individual in a Community

"Community" has become a buzzword of such these days.  I freely admit that I have blown the trumpet call to community even within our missionary community of WGM Uganda.  The funny thing is that everyone seems to have a different idea of what community is and should look like.  How do we ever find common ground when we all want the same thing and yet disagree on what it looks like?  I think there is a lot of beauty in such tension.

Check out this picture I found...

Photo Credit:  Rupert Britton, photograph, https://unsplash.com/photos/l37N7a1lL6w

Here is a beautiful field of tulips.  No one can argue that this is not a community of tulips.  However, we can argue over the color of the tulips.  Clearly, the center of the photo shows a red tulip surrounded by yellow.  There is nothing wrong with the red tulip, nor is there anything wrong with the yellow tulip.  Unfortunately,  many of us Christians look around at one another and complain or argue that we all must look a certain way (usually we want people to look like us).

At Heritage, we have the unbelievable benefit of being a very diverse community.  400+ students from over 25 different nationalities.  We are a field of multi-colored tulips and even many different types of flowers.  It is truly a beautiful thing.  However, as we join hands as a Christian community and seek to journey together, sometimes we can begin claiming that we need to look and act in a very specific manner.  Instead of helping each other on the journey of faith, we begin to judge each other's journey.

John Wesley described salvation as a process calling it "the way of salvation".  There is a community element to that process. So while salvation is a very personal thing between you and God, it has a communal aspect to it. That does not mean, however, that we can begin dictating what each person's "way of salvation" must look like. 

Do me a favor, think about your salvation experience thus far and share in the comment section how it has been different from someone else's salvation journey  (no need to mention names).  In a positive way, describe how someone has encouraged you in your journey without demanding that it look a certain way.