Many people today long for the warmth of community, a sense of purpose, and experiences of authentic spirituality. They also desire freedom to make their own choices and moral autonomy over their lives, in body, soul, and spirit. They want Christianity to be a real force for healing and transformation, not just an empty and performative religion.
They are looking for a church that provides these things, but they may not be sure where to look. The first thing to consider is the church’s guiding principles.
A community christian church is a local congregation that does not have a formal denominational affiliation. They often become independent churches, supported solely by the communities they serve.
This is a common phenomenon in American democracy, where churches are free to grow and flourish when they can attract members of various ages, ethnicities, and religious backgrounds. Sometimes they are formed by disaffected ministers from traditional churches, and other times it happens that a locality finds that its residents are too diverse in their religious outlook to organize a traditional denominational parish.
The Council of Community Churches was founded in 1950 at Lake Forest, Illinois, and has since expanded to include likeminded religious bodies worldwide. The council’s membership includes congregations of a wide variety of ages, ethnicities, and religious backgrounds who are united by their commitment to the ideals and program outlined in its constitution and by their shared desire for a unified church that “commits itself as comprehensive as the spirit and teachings of Christ and as inclusive as the love of God.”
Their goals and objectives are described below:
They seek to realize Christian unity in the spheres of local, national, and world relationships. They are committed to the ideals of Christ as expressed in his commandments and to the values of a loving and caring community.
Jesus valued community, and the apostles modeled this for their followers. The Lord told his disciples that they were to wash one another’s feet, to be intimately involved in the life of their fellow Christians. He expected them to do this not only to express their deepest loyalty, but because they were to practice the love of God with others.
In this way, Christian communities not only bring their members to maturity but to the light of Christ. They are, in a sense, a beacon of hope for those who are disenchanted with the Church in general.
These communities have a mission to help the world, and they carry it out in many ways: by helping to meet the needs of the homeless, by bringing hope to those who are ill or dying, by working for justice or bringing peace to the planet.
Some communities do this with great energy, and others quietly and yet effectively. Every Christian community carries out the call to bring the Gospel to the world in its own particular way, but each is a guerrilla unit in the fight to reach the lost and hurting.