Conviction...

I just received a spanking while reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life
Together. On page 30 he states:

Christian community is like the christian's sanctification. It is the
gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of
our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and
trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the
christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so
too, the christian community has not been given to us by God for us to
be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily
receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will
fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.

And then further down the page:
Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is
rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may
participate.

Whoa! This really challenges the way I have thought about christian
community, particularly as it applies to the local church. It seems
that much thought about church culture is that the tone, the feel, the
mood, the culture is determined by the church leadership and church
membership. But according to Bonhoeffer, our role is to participate
in the christian community God has placed us in - for it is a gift of
God that we are to be thankful for.

I'll need to ponder this for awhile...hmmm....