Life in the City: Organic Community

This is a mostly uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting, please check the audio for accuracy.

I think we’re live.

Yeah, I think we are live score.

Welcome to the life in the city podcast from Antioch Community Church in Northeast Minneapolis, where we explore what it looks like to be a loving family inviting all people into the life changing way of Jesus Christ.

We’re glad you’re here.

Welcome back everybody, to another life in the city podcast from Antioch Community Church.

I am Coley Waataja.

And I am Rachel Love.

And yeah, we’re back to talk about another core value of organic community, and we have something very fun today.

We are not alone.

Again, it’s not just Rachel and I talking.

We have another guest. Woo.

We have Bryce Langley.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.

I’ve always wanted to do that.

Where’s my where’s my air horn?

App when I need it.

Oh my God.

We are nearly the Dorkiest podcast that I am familiar with, but there is a financial podcast by NPR that uses an air horn on Jobs Friday.

I’m guarantee.

Oh, man, yeah.

Called the indicator, I’ll shout.

It out ’cause.

They’re non profit or non profit whatever.

They use the air horn on jobs Friday.

It’s pretty funny.

Oh my anyway.

I’m going to cut all that out.

Bryce Langley is with us today.

Before we get into organic community, Bryce, why don’t you introduce yourself to the people that are listening?

If they don’t know you, who are you?

How’d you end up here?

Yeah, so I am the pastoral resident here. So I got connected to Antioch originally, my wife Emily and I, this would have been April of 2018.

We had found out about Antioch through we were going to an FCA church down in Winona, and then when we were getting married, moving up to the cities, we actually looked on the Gospel coalition site.

So it was like one that we were just perusing articles and we’re like, oh, there’s a church locator.

So we were living in.

Like sort of South Central Ish Minneapolis at the time we found it.

Showed up, met Andy, never left.

That’s awesome.

And now you’re our resident cool kids.

Resident cool kids.

Can I say that?

Yes, yeah, if if if I’m on the edge of millennial and I’m an elder millennial, so elder millennial Gen X almost, but not you are probably like the other end of nearly a Gen.

Z Yeah, I was born in 93, so yeah. So I’m sorry if that makes like anybody who listens.

To this podcast or either of you feel significantly older.

I remember 93, that’s the.

I I started kindergarten, I think, in 1930.

Yeah, the 90.

Sorry Paulie, I was in 3rd grade.

Oh, and I know there’s people listening.

Shut up.

I was in college.

Yeah, but.

Oh man.

Or maybe that?

Weren’t born yet in 93 two. We have some young ends here.

Or although I I will say like this is the thing that I always, you know, describe about being born when I was ’cause cola.

You had just said that, like, I’m a lot closer to Gen Z than than the two of you.

I remember when.

Like Facebook didn’t exist.

OK. I’m sorry.

Myspace was the new frontier, and by the time I was like a freshman in high school, Facebook was open to anybody.

Outside of a Edu address.

So it was outside of a college, you know, platform.

Right?

Did anybody else is like friends and like college like go crazy when the newsfeed became a thing on Facebook?

Oh yeah, that like such an invasion of privacy and then look where we are now.

And you had to, you had to.

You had to word everything as if.

It, you know, it was Kohli is at lunch or like everything was worded that way, not like it is now with just put whatever.

Yeah, Yep.

I always get a kick out of like, the memories on social media, looking back and like college, Rachel was a hot mess and like, thinking.

She was so.

Profound putting like song lyrics as like her status and I’m like.

Yeah, it’s.

Looking back like.

Oh, like Hanson lyrics don’t age well, you know.

Like why am I doing this but.

It’s not.

It’s I get a kick out of.

There we go.

It nowadays, yeah.

I I haven’t shared a memory.

You know, anti or anti hack?

Facebook cares about your memories and it’s like, yeah, this is crazy.

They also care about your privacy.

So anyway.

But but having said that though, like I remember growing up in a time you know, where social media and the proliferation of technology as such a a commonplace thing, a part of.

Our normal existence wasn’t a thing yet, right?

This is when, like, guns and roses and Pantera, release a record.

You had to go to a record shop and go like, sounds kinda copy.

And you listen to it and you’re like, you know, Buick or your old Volvo, yes.

Instead of Spotify so.

I love it.

Oh man, hilarious.

Well, thanks for coming right.

It’s good to have.

You on that’s.

Going to be here, we are going to talk about the core value of organic community.

Let me read the core value and then we can just talk about it sound.

Good. Yeah, yeah, alright.

So this is what we have for.

This core value.

God exists as a community of three and one father, son, and Holy Spirit.

God people are called to live as a relational community expressing diversity within unity.

We strive to cultivate loving, authentic relationships that are centered in Jesus Christ.

Our goal is to be an active, healthy, growing, and life giving.

Organic community that reflects the reality of who Jesus is to the world around us.

That’s a lot.

Yeah, there’s a lot in.

So let’s just start with.

You know, there’s there’s a lot of buzzwords right now, but let’s just start with some definitions.

How would you guys define community?

Yeah, I mean, it’s literally Antioch’s middle name, right? Antioch Community Church. So I think it would be good.

For us to actually know what it means.

Yeah, probably.

And I think in some senses, oftentimes when we think of community, we think of literally just the space around us and the people living around us.

But I think it’s more than just that for us.

I think it involves.

Who we identify with, and as a part of our church, we are a family.

So we’re identifying with other believers who are part of that family, but also identifying with the people that live around us that we share some commonality with, whether that be commonality through the spirit or commonality of, yes, we live in the same area as well.

Any other thoughts from you guys?

Well, yeah, I mean, it’s funny ’cause like the way we use community now isn’t really a biblical term.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m not thinking of.

Jesus doesn’t call us too.

The word community exactly right.

It’s I can’t think of a passage.

Yeah, I think community itself is more of a modern terminology to describe the togetherness, right?

Like I think about how theologians describe the the visible church, so the church building the actual congregations and then the Invisible Church, so that way.

You know, us sitting in Minneapolis have something in common with a village in Nigeria or Anglicans that are maybe part of a different denomination, a very different locale, but under the same banner of Jesus Christ, you know, crucified and resurrected.

Yeah, so like biblical terms would be like family and unity and.

Yeah, I mean a lot of the words that are in this description, but in modern terms, we have community.

And so we were kind of trying to hit at all of those things.

But we also clarify it with the word organic, which again is such a buzzword.

I mean, we’re right next to a building that probably has 12 companies in it that all use the word organic in their title or.

It’s a Minneapolis.

I’m not.

Yes. Yeah, exactly.

But we didn’t put it in the core values in.

Order to be.

A buzzword.

So I guess you guys having.

Not been there when?

We wrote these when you see it organic, like what do you what do you hear or what do you, what does it bring to mind for you?

In terms of community, when you hear the word organic.

Yeah, I mean the word organic.

Typically is talking about living things and so when I hear organic in relation to a community like we’re living, I like that in the core value, it said.

Our goal is to be active, healthy and growing community and.

It’s not something that, like the body of Christ, we’re just stagnant in that we’re living life day today and we are growing and should be active within that.

And my husband runs an urban farm here in the Twin Cities.

When I hear organic, I often think of like Farm.

Kind of things.

And in the farming community it usually relates to like the way something grows without the use of artificial agents.

So when I think of organic community within the body of a church, it means we don’t necessarily need outside forces to force us to grow.

We should be doing.

It on our own.

Own together.

Would you say Bryce?

I think it’s I like that you draw the parallel with Joel working at the urban farm because again, living in in Minneapolis, and when Emily and I first got married, we were living just down the road from a Co-op and there’s an entire culture around organic, sustainable living, like it comes part and parcel with so many.

Different things, for better or for worse.

There’s certain political leanings, usually, but there’s a commitment to.

Like forging a better, more innovative way forward. So it’s like, yeah, what if we don’t shock all of our foods with a ton of GMO’s?

What if we actually exist as a stalwart within a local radius where people can go buy something that’s actually connected to their surrounding areas?

So your carrots.

Were, you know, planted by Bugs Bunny himself kind of thing.

And so I think I think about that, especially within the organic community aspect is that.

As the church, I think were commissioned very uniquely to be setting the example for what it’s like for people to relate to one another.

And so obviously that’s going to share some things with a particular host culture that the church is situated in.

But it’s also going to be uniquely countercultural, which means there’s and I I think we’re going to get into this in a little bit, is that?

There’s an agency that’s on the people to really make it.

Like I think when Jesus says that you know we are the hands and feets of him, there’s a an old prayer from.

I think she was a nun in Eastern Europe, but she says Christ has no body now but yours.

No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Uhm, so I think about that particular unique calling.

And how then, you know, using all the family words, especially like in Ephesians, we’re going to get into some of this, I think, with some of the passages that Paul, I would say, and I think even Peter in his letters very much describes the church as.

Is sort of a dysfunctional family in that in that way, like, you know, crazy uncles and everybody else.

But, you know, at the end of the day, despite personality differences and the things that we work out together, which means we’re always pursuing reconciliation and improvement of relationships, we’re still a family.

At the end of the day.

So that.

That’s kind of like my general thoughts on why organic I think is actually not just like, yeah, I felt like you said not just a buzzword, it actually.

Has a lot of meeting.

Yeah, there’s a there’s a great book from a couple decades ago called the Trellis and the vine, and you can get most of the premise from the title.

But a vine?

Needs to grow, but it also needs a trellis, and if you overbuild the trellis, your vine is not going to be successful.

And if you don’t have a trellis, your vine is just going.

To be a.

Pile of vine on the ground and and so I think one thing that can happen.

And is the reason I bring that up is because when people hear organic a lot of times, what?

What will then kind of get talked about is something that looks very disorganized or unintentional, right?

I was actually driving yesterday to somewhere that I don’t normally drive.

And there was one house that just had like the front.

I guess you could go out the front yard, I don’t know, side yard.

It was kind of hard to tell how it was situated, but you could see it from the road.

And it was just this mess of garden.

Like there were literally pots on top of pots on top of pots.

Kind of like maybe they went for a Pinterest look and it didn’t work out, but they just committed and then there were tomatoes.

Yeah, failed.

Yeah, like a Pinterest fail, sort of, but it was like the whole yard and.

There was this guy like greenhouse frame, but no greenhouse it.

It was just very.

Up like, whoa.

And then, literally, the next house was pristine.

Beautiful garden like plots with fencing around them and.

Like and I thought.

Well, they’re they’re.

They’re going for the same thing, but they’re going about it in two very different ways.

And I mean, yeah, you’re going to you’re they’re probably both getting tomatoes, they’re probably both getting whatever they’re trying to grow.

But who is?

Actually harvesting what they’re getting and versus feeding squirrels or or they’re putting in so much work like to have a mess and it’s just as much work.

Right.

But you can have an organized, well grown, healthy garden.

So I think organic is not the same as sloppy or unintentional.

It’s just giving space for the thing to grow, creating the space for it, not over producing or over.

Uh, manufacturing, I guess the word I’m looking for or not so much producing.

And I see that antiok. I mean actually you two are Coley, you are over our women’s Ministry and Bryce has been doing our Mens ministry vision casting two and yeah.

Good point. We didn’t.

But I see that Charlus kind of illustration in our church, with things like women and men’s ministry opportunities and things like our second Sunday picnics, like we try to give space and opportunity for people to interact.

And draw more relationships.

But I think one thing we try to be careful to do is to over plan.

And we don’t want to necessarily tell people like you need to have community and build relationships in these very specific ways, giving people freedom to do that within the body of Christ.

And so we’re not building too large of a trellis.

Where people think like, oh, the church has to be my means, in which I build relationships and community.

It can be a tool for it.

But like, also, we should just go and do that on our own and live together and serve together.

And I know Darius talked about this with us at our previous episode about.

Mission and living in a holistic mission mindset, but it’s something I think you’re right.

It doesn’t need to be sloppy, but also it doesn’t need to be over planned when we do life.

Together, yeah.

Waiting for the church, whatever you want that you know the the paid people or the leaders, whatever.

Like waiting for them to create community for me.

Is not.

Going to be sustainable long term.

And I think that’s a lesson from the last two years, not just for Antioch, but I think just the church in general, particularly in the West, where we had a lot of more or less privilege, if you want to use that word, to be able to congregate without any real, you know, governmental.

Russian like I think about our brothers and sisters that are in other parts of the world where they have to be underground.

And so community looks a lot different for them, but for us, you know, looking at the statistics across the waterfront.

Of retention and people you know, moving.

You know the great resignation in economic standards about people quitting their jobs and wanting to re emphasize community.

Think about the way in which you know when people rely on programming and then all of a sudden that’s not there, and then the onus becomes on the person again.

To think, well, what am I actually doing to either help or hurt this?

I think that right there is kind of like a certain, like, it’s like an alarm bell or a wake up call for the American Church in particular to recapture what does it mean to actually be invested in and amongst other people?

In you know times like that where it becomes more unorthodox.

You know in method.

Yeah, no, that’s really good.

Well, let’s let’s run through a few ways that Antioch does provide community, though, because I think it is important to provide something like if we said we’re at church, but figure it out yourself, like, that’s not helpful, right?

That’s not disciplemaking.

So yeah, like Rachel had a great example of like, the second Sundays in the summer.

We try to.

Offer a picnic time.

BYO Picnic and which we just had our last.

One now, but yeah.

But what are some other?

I mean our big one, I’ll just throw it out there.

Is community groups.

That’s like the biggest way.

Sunday mornings, you have some degree of community, but community groups are really where the rubber meets the road.

I think.

With relationships.

How have you guys seen those community groups like either ministered to you and your families or been a place for you to foster community?

Brothers, yeah.

I mean, I think community groups are some of the biggest ways that people actually get tide into life of our church and build friendships.

To some extent, one of the reasons why people choose to make Antioch their home church is the people that they meet and the relationships that they have in those community.

Groups I remember one of our first Sundays at Antioch, Kristyn Sandberg, turning around after a Sunday morning service and just saying like, I I don’t think I’ve met you yet.

And that conversation?

Led to her talking about her community group that was led by Jeff and Anna Nelson at that time, and we got connected with them.

And I remember Jeff saying, like, hey, our church is going to be moving into this new space where you’re doing some painting in the evenings.

Like, do you want to paint with us?

And so.

Joel and I showed up for some paint nights at the Waterbury Building before I moved in here, and that’s where we got to meet more people.

Oh, wow.

And so just those levels of connection that can come from even just being or starting in a community group.

And now I look, and Joel and I are community group leaders and the people that we’ve been able to invite into our.

Group as well, and we are actually multiplying from our community.

So it’s cool to see the church and the relationships that are build how it just spreads and how.

We’ve been able to see people even who are branching out from our community group, ministering to others and caring for others in that way.

And I know there’s been times where we say this in our Community group.

There’s sometimes people just need to come and be ministered to.

Like, don’t bring us back, even if it’s a potluck night.

Just come, let us.

Love on you through food and there’s been times where we’ve like, need to receive.

There’s been some traumatic things that have gone on in our lives or the lives of people in our community group over the past two years, and it’s been really cool to see that, like, no questions asked.

People are just there for you in prayer and bringing meals.

It’s a such a tangible way to interact with the body of Christ every single week through community groups, and I love it.

That’s awesome, grace.

What does what does community look like for you in community groups?

And no pressure, but your one of your community group leaders is right here next to you.

Yes, as she’s looking at me with daggers.

Come on, that’s not daggers and now we don’t have video.

Evidence I was not daggered.

Yeah, I think, looking back on my experience, because Emily and I came to Antioch as newlyweds.

We had just transplanted kind of back home to the Minneapolis area after living and serving in Winona for several years.

And so we came from a large church.

And we came to Antioch significantly smaller, and it kind of terraformed the whole idea of what does building, exploring and finding community actually look like.

And so I remember Andy came up to us.

You know, I think it was actually the first Sunday that we were here in the Waterbury building, like, not in the Ukrainians that are like here.

Doing full on Sunday mornings was our first day here.

So so so remember Andy came up to us, just introduced himself, actually took us out to lunch.

And so there was an Invitational spirit.

That was, you know, not contrived.

It felt very natural.

It felt like.

Big coming out of an abundance that he expressed to us.

And then at the time it was John and Annie Flath who were here invited us to their community group at the time, led by a couple of people who have since moved on the part of the sorting with Antiok over the last several years, but we got connected with.

Ryan, Monica Mauer, and then Tony Coma.

So, hey, Tony, if you’re listening.

Uh, so now we’ve been part of Coliu and John Community group and I think.

As I catalogue the last several years, I mean Emily and I went through quite a bit, especially in our first three years as a married couple, and our community groups and the different iterations have been such life lines, like very practically through meal trains, through literally letting us borrow vehicles and we’ve.

You know, moved on teen times for different circumstances and so.

So I think for me it’s just really special to see the church really be the church in very gritty rubber meeting the road sort of ways.

That’s really inspirational and I think especially in Hebrews where it says that we’re spurring each other onto good works.

That when community is operating at its best.

It shouldn’t, you know, produce a consumeristic mindset that says I just want to become a Leech.

I want to take, take, take.

It should.

Could, you know, be a catalyst for people who have received it saying, I can’t help but want to give this back or out to the next person?

And so then the sort of disciples, making disciples sort of model continues.

Yeah, that’s a great, that’s a great point because a lot of times community in these formats like community groups, small groups, life groups, emotional communities, whatever version, yeah.

Can become really insular.

Like, this is my these are my people.

In other words, you aren’t you out there are not my people.

Right.

Yeah, there’s this insight, and hopefully we don’t do it perfectly at Antioch by any stretch.

Nobody does.

But hopefully our community groups are are places where we can have safe conversations where we can.

Maybe admit lies, deal with stuff.

Another even deeper level I would say of community would be in.

Our DNA.

Groups which are just men or just women where we.

Can really get into the nitty gritty of that kind.

Right.

Of stuff and DNA stands for Discover, nurture, act.

Yes. Discover. Nurture. Act.

Do do do do do.

Yeah, you have an app.

Matt Kenneth would be so.

I don’t know, blast.

Proud of us.

You’re going to blast out all the microphones.

Well, he’s pulled out the air horn during community group before.

Oh my God.

I can’t remember even.

It it wasn’t absolutely, yes.

The resident cheerleader.

We have a couple golden retrievers in our in.

Our community group.

But you’re definitely one of them.

My Emily is the other.

Yeah, that’s true.

But it’s not just about my group, and you’re not my group, but like you said, if it makes you want to go out.

And reproduce that and turn around and invite people.

Hey, I don’t think I’ve met you before.

Come to my group.

Like if you call Antioch home and you’ve been around for any amount of time, you’ve heard me say this before, but if you call Antioch.

Home you are on the hospitality team.

It is not up to the person holding bulletins to invite someone to community group or to get them to meet the pastor or whatever.

That’s good.

I mean the best scenario is.

Is when maybe best is a funny word to use.

But it’s a great sign when someone is connected to a community group before they even meet a staff member.

Yeah, it’s just awesome.

And that doesn’t always happen.

It’s not that.

That’s yeah.

It’s not all or nothing in either direction, but.

A part of that multiplication idea, that reaching out why we want to reach our lost friends and loved ones with our community through our Community group relationships.

Is because of who God is, and that that’s kind of why we started this core value description in somewhat of a weird way.

I mean, if you, if you were.

Expecting to see some discussion about community, but the first sentence starts with a description of God.

Let me read this first sentence again from this core value and then I’d love to just hear you guys thoughts on it.

So we’re talking about organic community, but the first sentence in this description is this.

God exists as a community of three in one father, son, and Holy Spirit.

It almost feels like a non sequitur.

But I’ll ask the leading question.

Why isn’t it?

I think like for me, I.

Especially like so.

This might be a a non tangent, but maybe a qualifier.

A bit about me is that I’m finishing my seminary degree at Bethel.

That’s also where I work full time, so I wear a lot of hats.

But in seminary, it’s gotten me very much into getting a relationship with my entire Bible.

It’s one of the reasons I love that we did summer psalms here at Antioche is they’re seeing the continuity and the connectedness between us sitting here recording this podcast.

And Abraham, however many thousands of years ago, who was promised I’m going to make your descendants outnumber the stars.

So here, here.

We are living on the other side of that promise and one of the things that I really see.

In the Old Testament, given to Israel, who was supposed to be set apart from the different Pagan nations is, you know, love your neighbor as yourself.

It’s the entire law, all you know, moral, ceremonial and judicial laws summed up in one sentence by Jesus on the sermon on the Mount.

And so.

It’s a fundamental part of who God is is to be in relationship.

Not just with himself in, you know, in the Trinitarian schema, but it’s also that he is relentlessly pursuing us, his creation as part of that project to reconcile all things back to him and pushing us forward.

And I think you’re right.

It goes back to to that creation right in the garden before sin was even a thing, right?

We see this creator who chose to be in relationship with his creation, and we see him in this beautiful picture of him walking and talking with Adam and Eve and having this beautiful relationship.

And we know sin ultimately.

Put a.

Put a damper on that relationship, for lack of a better term.

Right.

It broke that and it severed it, and our goal is to try to.

Obviously we hope and we have an assurance of that relationship is now put back together with him and we’ll see that in its fullness, in the new Kingdom and new creation.

But we can.

Also live that out as image bearers of Christ as we seek to be relational with each other and to bring our J count a little higher.

Today we see that in Jesus.

Do because when Jesus came to Earth, even though he was fully God, and he had that relationship with the father and the spirit that is so perfect, he chose to be in relationship with people here on Earth, and he surrounded himself by the disciples and he ministered to them.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

He allowed them to.

Learn from him through him and to have them be a part of his ministry here.

And so I see.

But, you know, if we’re supposed to emulate the person of Jesus Christ as Christians, Little Christs, right, we need to do life as Jesus did, and that’s surrounding ourselves with community so we can further live on mission.

To be like him.

Preach. Amen.

Where’s the air horn right now?

There you go.

Yeah, I think it this is one of those places where the crossroads of theology and.

Orthopraxy, if you want just of what we know from Scripture and how we live, this is where they meet.

And if you don’t have a robust theology of the Trinity.

Then maybe you only have God the father.

And if God is love, who was he?

Loving, right?

Before there were people, and if that’s true, then he needed creation in order to be complete, which is not the case.

So we don’t, I mean then as we live out, live that out.

As his.

One of the terms that I that I really well because because I think of in in Derek Kidner’s commentary on Genesis.

Three different verbs just went through my head.

He calls humanity so Adam and Eve, and then all of us who are, you know, descendants as vice Regents.

So we’re given a certain amount of delegated authority to be that hands and feet though the little crisis, sort of you, you said it, Rachel.

So there.

There is a kind of kingly priesthood sort of relationship that God sees and has with us as he has with himself first.

So there’s that sort of mirror imaging and reflection there.

Yeah, yeah.

It’s part of our are made in the.

Image of God as well.

So organic community is a core value and when we first.

Added this to the list 15 years ago.

We felt like it needed to be on there because.

It’s just, not.

Expect or it’s not assumed in every person’s life.

We are in a disconnected culture.

And our hope is that the church can be a place where people do find that community.

And use it to serve our community and be representatives like you, said vice Regents of.

Of the heart of Jesus.

Yeah, I think a lot about how organic implies a physical interfacing.

So I think it was Robert Putnam who wrote a book back.

I think it was within the last ten years or so-called bowling alone, which was a reflection on the way that the 1950s and 60s saw.

Socioeconomic circumstances moving from very well connected webs in the inner city where people were sitting on their front porches and then moving out to the suburbs where it was, it’s your Oasis, it’s your kind of thing, and everybody kind of passes by waving to each other from the Cadillac.

And that was the extent of it.

And so there’s a a project that I think the host culture tries to.

So it, you know employ about how do we make community and around what and what’s the overflow of it.

So for better or for worse, there are things like, for me, of course, how to shout it out.

I’ve been a part of the ******** in the metal underground for the last 10 years.

Oh, we made it.

We made it this.

Far without mentioning metal music.

Maybe if it made it this far you thought you thought I could go one podcast or summer without it lol.

So mission accomplished, but I think about the way that especially in the last two years when the pandemic, you know, really forced people to reevaluate their commitment to and their own working definitions of Community.

I think especially because Christ died.

And resurrected as an embodied person, as a physical person, not a digital image, not in the metaverse, but as a physical person.

And so I think that that means necessarily community has to be practiced within a physical being.

You know, face to facial in his shoulder.

And obviously, you know, the pandemic, you know, created a certain subset of challenges to that, but it should not have and I think does not change our commitment.

In fact, I think it it reinforces it all the more because of the way that statistics are coming out about how dis connectedness is driving suicide rates, mental health and.

The prescriptions of opioids and antidepressants and such.

I think for me that gives me a lot of hope for people to see that it’s like, no, we cannot exist, primarily as a disembodied person who lives vicariously on the Internet and doesn’t have any rich community in their own personal lives.

So I love the fact that our church is.

That’s good.

Kind of ruthlessly committed to that principle.

Yeah, I I love what you said about Jesus coming as a person.

Maybe you said this, but it just.

It bears repeating, maybe for just for myself, that, you know, he wasn’t human.

First he became human, he became a man in order to reconcile us to himself.

And so he could he have done that?

You know, a fun thought experiment is like, could Jesus have done this if he wasn’t also human?

I’ll leave it.

There no, I I was going to say there are, there are textbooks written from councils about how that’s not the case.

Right.

No, exactly.

The implication is no, he could not have.

Right.

That was not the way.

But that that, who are we to think that we can have relationships and not also be human?

We go for all these ways.

I do it too.

You know, where we try to find all these ways to be less human in the interest of self protection or not having to admit fault or weakness or sin.

Right.

But I mean.

Again, Jesus is our model, that he was fully human and fully God, yeah.

So there’s there’s this account called the power of self-care that is a satirical account using like affirmations that you do see on the Internet, but then stating them more overtly and they sound insane.

Yeah, it’s like the demotivational posters of thing.

Yes, it’s kind of like that, except that it’s it’s basically saying like, you’re perfect and ignore everyone else, like that kind of thing.

Right.

And they’re hilarious, but but there is a trend.

There is a cultural belief that uhm.

You know, I need to cut out.

Toxic people from my life.

That is one of my personal pet peeves.

I’ve heard that I I’m gonna, you know, probably, you know, blackball myself a little bit because I’m a younger millennial teetering on the edge of Gen Z, but I think that tends to be.

A platitude.

Working on a college campus, I hear that a lot.

I’ve worked in psychiatric facilities where I’ve heard that a lot.

Like one of the therapeutic goals is to cut toxic people out of my life.

And I would actually say that it’s fundamentally antithetical to the Christian message, especially around community.

Because if that was the case, like I think about some of the passages that are in our our core value.

And like, I’m going to read Ephesians 4 one through three.

This is unity in the body of Christ is the.

Is the tagline of this I therefore a prisoner for the Lord?

So this is Paul writing from prison, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience.

And here it is bearing with one another in love, eager, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Now, I get that there’s a lot of nuances within the dynamics of relationships that are legitimately unhealthy, unsafe.

I’m not going to advocate for a blanket that everybody got to get together with, you know, their, you know, I mean, whatever it is.

And it doesn’t mean that you the alternative is not become a doormat.

Exactly, but I think.

Overall, the the umbrella, I guess the banner should be towards reconciliation, which I think especially in our culture of deep platforming, canceling, cutting toxic people out of my life and all of those sort of axioms, this is sort of like the punk, rock countercultural thing to do.

Is to actually reconcile with people and actively pursue that ’cause Christians should be leading in that charge.

No, that’s good.

That’s good.

And it’s hard.

Yeah, it is.

It’s not easy.

And I mean, that’s like the hardest version of.

Like being in a community group with people that you just don’t quite gel with.

You know, here at Antioch we don’t have affinity groups.

Right.

We don’t have the young adult group and the grandparents group and.

You don’t want me making a metal group, although I do have a texting thread with James Enlow and Craig Baird called Antioch Core for that purpose.

I love it.

That’s hilarious.

That’s hilarious.

But the goal is that our community groups and the Community that we have at Antioch would look like a family, right?

And that, like you said, it includes all.

The crazy uncles and you know.

Everybody but yeah.

I I am that crazy uncle.

Just so if anybody is wondering who that is, I mean, I’m just kind of like coming out as the crazy uncle.

Yeah, yeah, that’s it wasn’t a big secret.

Got it.

But the yeah, it’s are there people in our group that, you know, we connect with?

More than others, of course.

Just like in any family.

Especially like this.

This last weekend I was up at my sort of in law family reunion.

It’s Emily family, like all 30 of her cousins, little kids all get together and naturally I tend to gravitate more towards certain people that maybe have known a little bit better that I share certain, you know, hobbies or interests within or identify with their stories.

Oh, awesome.

And yet everybody still out on the splash pad and out tubing having a great time with each other because that’s just naturally how it’s set up to be, yeah.

Yeah, and sin is what messes that up, not personality.

Right, exactly.

Even though sin can definitely web itself into personalities and, you know, sort of amplify certain, you know, things within it, like I can even say within myself is that it’s like, yeah, there are things within my personality that are probably really abrasive that I’m on that I have to keep a.

For sure.

Thumb under but that’s sanctification and that’s part of what community necessarily does.

Like I think if in Psalm 19 when David says who can discern his errors declare me innocent of hidden faults, which necessarily is done you know, prayerfully you know, in a vertical relationship and then in a horizontal 1.

Right.

Right.

And just to reiterate for anyone who’s kind of cringing, like we are not saying that you should stay in relationship with people that are.

Are dangerous, exactly.

Or that are going to cause some serious problems, but the.

The goal of the Mission of Jesus is reconciliation, and that doesn’t mean it has to happen through me.

It’s going to happen through Jesus.

Yeah, but my first move isn’t cut out all annoying people.

Right, because, you know, it’s sort of the the the principle of.

You know, out of an abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, you know, thinking about proverbs.

Because when we’re operating in a healthy bandwidth, knowing what it’s like to maintain and to practice healthy relationships, there’s better discernment for understanding what it means to actually avoid dangerous people.

Right.

Because then eventually it’s either nobody dangerous and you end up getting hurt and taken advantage of, or everybody dangerous and then you become paranoid and sort of insufferable.

So absolutely.

So if if any listeners are looking for community.

What do they do?

This is where, like one of my, my sort of passion topics, either theologically, biblically, or, you know, talking about orthopraxy, this is something Emily and I love is hospitality.

So I think about the way in which it was really powerful for me and Emily to have been just invited out for coffee, invited out to launch after service.

So that doesn’t automatically mean in a legalistic way that everybody got to swarm around the new person and invite him out to Centro over here because quite frankly, that’s going to feel.

Overwhelming, especially maybe for an introvert, but.

I think there is a.

A principle in which how do we try to find community, how do we do it is there’s actually some subtext in that verb is you gotta.

Find it.

There’s an active searching process because effective community, and I would even say especially looking at Paul and even looking to the example of Jesus, there is a.

Leave your boats, leave your Nets, come follow me.

And then there’s an active response.

So it’s not just a, you know, I’m going to sit here, wait in my chair, and then kind of wait for people to come to me.

Even though I think it’s still really powerful when you know you’re not expecting it.

Somebody seeks you out, but that shouldn’t be the the primary mode in which.

That’s sought out for.

No, that’s really good.

We’ve got more community groups launching this fall and we have ones that are full and need to multiply, so.

Yes, we do.

Yeah, ours included.

Yeah, no, really.

Ours included.

It’s busting at the seams now with like kids and all that kind of stuff.

I would say this is something like, I just thought of this.

I think this is honestly where spring retreat is actually really, really amazing because you talked about how.

One of the really great things, and something that I really love about Antiok is, again, we don’t have affinity groups.

We’re not siphoned out and splintered into all these different interests, even though people more or get.

We do do some things for certain groups of people like moms and women and men.

Right.

But that’s not our primary source.

Yeah, yeah, ’cause, largely that’s not our operating principle, but one of the things that I think is great is that there isn’t that sense of like, yeah, we have our own community groups like we have, uh.

There’s, you know Rachel’s got hers. I know the clinics have theirs, and people you know, geographically or by friendship, they get together in those contexts.

But then spring retreat feels like the big extended family reunion where the the community groups more or less sort of dissolve or they blend together and it’s just, you know, boardgaming and the high ropes.

Yeah, totally.

Course and all these different things and community groups coming together at a table in the dining center.

And it’s this really beautiful picture like I think of in Revelation 21 and 22, where it’s like everybody brings brings tribute into the Kingdom and we’re all locked in arms and community groups are not going to exist because we are going to be that one community in eternity.

Yeah, that’s awesome.

The only time that we work against that is during the goose Chase game.

When you divide.

By alphabets.

That was rigged.

It was not.

All right, well, hey, we have as as is common with two extraverts.

We have gone along and and Rachel, our resident introvert, knows that we need to wrap it up, so.

Uhm yeah.

If you guys have any questions or other thoughts on organic community, we would love to hear it.

Feel free to reach out to us view the podcast.

And if you have questions about community groups or if you want to share your thoughts about some maybe something God has done in you through your community, we would love, love, love to hear it and even share with others if if you give us permission to do that.

So until next time, I think we’re going to wrap it up there.

Sounds good.

We’ll see you then.

This has been the life of the city podcast, brought to you by Antioch Community Church in northeast Minneapolis. Join our worship service at 10:00 AM on Sundays in the Waterbury Building or contact us at podcast@antiochcommunity.org. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.