We are stewards of the gift of community

When I was younger, I didn't really understand one of the church's primary gifts of which we are stewards. That is the gift of community.

One of the things I notice that is really different within churches is a true sense of community.  Outside of churches, you really notice the lack of community. I sat talking to my manicurist the other day.  She is a single mom with a 3 1/2-year-old-autistic child. She really has no one but herself to count on. 

This friend is not a Christian, but a Buddhist.  I don't know what is around here to support her from that tradition, so I could only speak for churches. 

At their best churches do provide a sense of community.  Like the old TV show "Cheers" -- the place where "everyone knows your name."  But more the place where you can go and people are there to listen.  People are there to help, and people are there who are in the same boat, and you can work at it together.

I always say that to all the young families and even to couples when I talk to them before marriage.  Here at church you can find one more sense of family and support in raising your children.  Here is one more place where your children are known and loved and accepted.

I do believe this is an important stewardship topic because this sense of community is a gift that has to be nourished and cared for in order for it to grow.

Some churches become too much like a family. There is a real sense of closeness but no room for new people to be integrated.  These churches usually shrink with age until they are basically one family.  And then the sense of church is gone.  Our call is always to widen the circle and share Christ's love.

Some churches are extremely friendly and open and yet so committed to some false Gospel that tells them everything is always great and so there is no room for someone who comes with real problems.   I recall a woman with a walker telling me that she had left her former church because she had been told that people don't like to be reminded of human frailty, and that if she wanted to continue to come there she really ought to get her hip fixed.  The message: Go there only as long as your life is great, or you can pretend that it is.

But the true church holds an ideal that here is a place where we can be who we are and who we are growing into as the people of God, without pretense and with all our human need.

Church works in this sense if we come when we are needy and when we are strong.  And we share our strength and our weakness.  At the heart what we share is the love that comes from God.  Paul's message in 1 Corinthians 13 is read all the time at weddings, but he's talking about community.  Love is patient, love is kind....


Lord, we give thanks for the love that you gave us in the gift of your Son.  May we continue to share your love and to open the arms of your body to all who are in need of that love.  Amen



Copyright © 2006, The Rev. Dana Reardon. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Email her at mspastor@aol.com.


The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI.  A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care.  She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander.  She is still trying to understand the accent.  While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team.  That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.