I could go on and describe all those I remember. There were no strangers in that church. Everyone knew everybody - or thought they did. We were a close-knit community. It was hard to have secrets in that small town. As hard as that was at times, it paid great dividends in the care and concern that was lavished on those in need of comfort and support. I can remember how the town turned out for funerals and looked out for one another when needed.

But that was in the days before television, before the technological revolution, before widespread travel, and urbanization. Today we live in a world of anonymity, where we move often to new places. The churches I have belonged to since my childhood are heterogeneous rather than homogeneous in their membership. There have been many in the congregations who were strangers to me, whose names were unfamiliar, and whom I saw only at worship and rarely in other places. Many traveled miles from their homes to worship each Sunday, passing by dozens of other churches. Building community in the modern era, in large congregations, is not as simple as it used to be. We belong to different affinity groups, and live in different neighborhoods. And yet we still need Christian community. We are still lonely and need friends. We still need people who care enough to listen to us and to be there to support us when we face crises and fall into ill-health.

In October 1993, in Worcester, Mass. police found a 73 year old woman dead in her home. She had been dead four years. How can someone not be missed? Her neighbors had alerted the police four years before that something might be wrong but when they contacted her brother he said that she had gone into a nursing home. The police told the Postal Service to stop delivering mail. Neighbors cut the grass and told the utility company to shut off the water. One friend from the past said that she didn't want anyone bothering her at all. Her brother said that the family hadn't been close since their mother died in 1979. The woman had lived in her house for forty years but none of her neighbors knew her well. A woman who lived across the street said that if she saw you outside she never said hello.

Community only happens when people reach out to one another. Relationships take effort. What is true of a neighborhood is also true of the church. Community doesn't just happen, it has to be created and nurtured if it is to be genuine. If we are to be a true community we must take an interest in one another. "Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:4)

My vision for the coming year is to focus on fostering our fellowship through building community. The apostle Paul urges us "to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." (Ephesians 4:1-6) Be authentic. Be genuine. No hypocrisy or posing to be something you are not. Live up to your vision of what the Church is called to be. People are looking at the church for authenticity. They want the church to be worthy of its calling. They want it to practice what it professes. We are called to be a family of Christ who cares for one another, and for the stranger. That means that we should be looking out for one another. "Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." (Hebrews 13:1,2)

Why make building community a priority? The world has a need for loving, caring relationships. We need friendship, hospitality and fellowship. We are not meant to be alone. People are looking for a place where they can feel welcome and accepted for who they are. They don't want to be ignored. All of us want to be valued and affirmed.

What is a community? A fellowship of people that has something important in common: koinonia. Despite our many differences: we don't all belong to the same organizations, or come from the same backgrounds, or play the same sports, or vote the same way. But we have many similar needs. And we have much in common if we are followers of Jesus Christ.

What do we have in common? St. Paul lists the seven-fold unity of the church.

1. One body: we are members of a single, visible organism with many parts.
2. One Spirit: we receive the soul of the body, regenerating power, the gift-giver
3. One hope: our goal, our destiny, our promised fulfillment in glory
4. One Lord: we acknowledge the centrality of Christ, the head of the body
5. One Faith: we believe in one apostolic Gospel
6. One baptism: we are initiated and incorporated into the church
7. One God and Father of us all, who is over all and through all and in all: all life comes from him, and he is present with all his children to protect us and guide us.

The authenticity of our community has to be maintained because it is constantly under attack. Just as human families tend to drift apart unless there is an attempt to keep them together, the family of Christ needs effort to keep it together. We are to spare no effort to keep it together. "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." How is it done? What is the secret to fostering a healthy and authentic community? It is to do it "in love". "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

St. Paul lists four aspects of relational love: humility, gentleness (considerateness), patience and forbearance. Humility means renouncing pride. Gentleness means renouncing rudeness. Patience means renouncing the tyranny of our own agendas. Forbearance means renouncing hurry in our lives.

"Pride lurks behind all discord, while the greatest secret of concord is humility. It is not difficult to prove this in experience. The people we immediately, instinctively like, and find easy to get on with, are the people who give us the respect we consider we deserve, while the people we immediately dislike are those who treat us like dirt. In other words, personal vanity is a key factor in all our relationships. If, however, instead of maneuvering for the respect of others (which is pride) we give them our respect by recognizing their intrinsic God-given worth (which is humility) we shall be promoting harmony..." (John Stott, God's New Society: The Message of Ephesians, p.148)

What would be the experience of Jesus if he visited our church anonymously for the first time? He once was invited to have dinner with Simon, a religious leader, when a woman who had lived a sinful life entered and washed his feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured cologne on them. Jesus turned to his host and said to him, "I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet,....you did not give me a greeting,....you did not put oil on my head, but she did all these things." (Luke 7:36-50)

In order to build community we have to reach out to others. Our sins are sins of omission rather than sins of commission. It is what we do not do that is the problem in building community. It is indifference to others that speaks loudly to others that we do not care, that we are unconcerned for them. It is when we take the time to meet people, to show them respect, to enquire after their welfare, to believe that the person next to us may be Jesus, or an angel of the Lord, that we will make every effort to be completely humble and gentle, patient and bearing with one another in love. Let us resolve to "do unto others what you would have them do unto you" by making every effort "to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."

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