(Photo by perfect_hexagon)
We breathe oxygen. We exhale carbon dioxide.
Everyone does it – at least every living thing does it. Plants reverse the order, but they breathe as well.
But do I have to breath your carbon dioxide for us to be in community? Do we have to be close enough to touch?
Lets flip this around – If I am close enough to touch you and inhale your carbon dioxide, then are we in community?
I think we would all agree that this isn’t necessarily true.
So, what is that thing that makes a group of people in the same room a community? Additionally, can that thing – whatever makes a group a community – exist when people are 5, 10, 100, or 1000 miles apart?
What do you think? Does community have to be about carbon dioxide?
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3 Responses to Is Community About Carbon Dioxide?
Stephen M Young II
Replied on: September 27, 2010, 9:00 am
Interesting question, Paul. I think technology has changed this quite a bit. You and I can talk over skype and see each other face to face and hear each other speak. Because of that we are able to overcome communication barriers that distance creates. Technology is not really the answer, though, it is only a tool.
I do remember, though, Paul’s words to the Thessalonian Church, that though he had been torn away from them (physically, not in heart) he continued to remember them, recalling before God his experiences with them and the fruit they had produced, love them, desire to see them, desire their well-being and spiritual vitality, exhort them with letters, etc. Paul had community with them even though he never saw them again after those 3 Sabbath days at the Synagogue. Lots of community, no carbon dioxide.
On the other hand Paul warned the Corinthian church in 1 Cor 11:18 that when they came together as a church for the Lord’s Supper, of all things, that there was not community, but division and selfishness (each one takes his own ahead of the others). So, lots of carbon dioxide and no community.
So my answer to your question is no.
Macario Cadatal
Replied on: August 19, 2011, 11:31 am
In John 15, Jesus said “you (may refer to each of the disciples or as a group) are the branches”, attached to the vine(Jesus). Jesus is their commonality(community). All those attached to the vine forms community regardless of geographical location, whether they gather or not, personally know each other or not. Jesus is the point of reference when we speak of community in relation to disciple making. Not sociologically where you breathe each others carbon dioxide.
Paul
Replied on: August 19, 2011, 2:28 pm
Hmmmm…I had never thought of it that way before. Thanks!