“It is not possible to be a disciple on your own.” These words have run through my mind many times since I first read them in 2001 after first reading them in the booklet produced by Community of Christ called Seekers and Disciples that year. When I first read these words, I subtracted them from their larger context. In doing this I became upset and wondered how anyone could possibly say such a thing. I read these words out of context and expanded upon what they mean to a point that the authors of them did not intend. These words come from the following statement:
It is not possible to be a disciple on your own. You cannot be a solo Christian. You have to enter and become part of a community. The first thing that Jesus did was gather a community of disciples around him whose task was to learn, share with each other, and together serve others.
Andrew Bolton and Anthony Chvala-Smith, Seekers and Disciples, Bob Kyser ed., Witnessing Disciple Series (Independence, Mo.: Herald Publishing House, 2001), 31.
In 2001 I felt that the statement was one that excluded those who could not be in community for reasons outside of their control. Knowing both of the authors I can not believe that this was their intent. Also with insight that I have gained over the past few years I realize that this statement is truly a reflection of what humans are called to be. We are called to be in community. This call for humans to be in community is found in many places both in secular and sectarian sources. It is a fact of who we are. Within sectarian sources we can find in the scriptures of many traditions examples of community, seldom if ever do we find examples of people truly being outside of community. Yes there are those who are physically alone, and yet they are part of a community in the greater sense. We also find many sectarian groups forming community or promoting community. The theology found in Christianity about what it is to be human and also the concept of a triune god calls those of the Christian tradition to be in community. (for a fuller exploration please see “Humanity in Community” by Lyle Anderson II, final paper for Christian Anthropology, 8 December 2004.”)
Within the secular world we can find many examples and need for community. It is found expressed in various ways in our media, both expressions of right and wrong relationship in community can be found (again I refer you to my paper). We can also find it in our academic studies. The clearest example of this comes from the insights I gained in my undergraduate course of “Social Psychology.” The course in and of itself is interesting to reflect on, as I was studding social psychology and yet for the most part “alone” in doing so. I was taking the course online with my favorite psychology professor, as the class version was with the professor that I did not learn as well from. Thus as I took this course I explored this topic alone with the aid of a few books and a syllabus and a bit of feedback on papers turned in. No contact with others taking the course, and only brief contact with the professor. I believe it was for my final paper, but it may have been early, one of the questions I had to respond to was something like is society needed for humanity. The answer was yes. In most basic sense all that is needed for humans is the brief societal contact for reproduction, but for humanity society as a whole is truly needed. Without society we would not be human as we understand it today. We would not have the collective knowledge that we do have, we would not have the technologies that we have, the languages… Everything we know of being human comes from being in society, if we had never had society beyond enough to reproduce, we would not live as long, we would not advance in understanding, for each individual would have to figure out everything on their own without help, support or the knowledge of those who came before.
Society in a sense is community, though society is not a healthy community. It is a community of communities of communities… It is a community of many wrong relationships and some good relationships. It is the call of Community of Christ, and I am sure many other Christian tradtions, and many of the other world faith traditions to build right relationships in community, to heal wrong relationship. In truth, I do believe it is the call for all humans as made in the image of the Divine to be in right relationship in community. Someday through the hard labors of all we will establish that true community, a commity of all that is a community of joy, hope, love and peace, the Peaceable Kingdom, yea even Zion.
— Lyle II