Thanks much for the correction –Philip

Thanks so much for this article, and for all your thoughtful and compassionate body of work over the years. This post has given me something to consider.
As sort of a nerd about accuracy, I have one small quibble – Billy Graham may well have used the quote you opened with, as have Barack Obama and many others. But the man who needs credit for originating the thought is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr:

” As a preacher… I must admit that I have gone through those moments when I was greatly disappointed with the church and what it has done in this period of social change. We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic. Nobody of honesty can overlook this. Now, I’m sure that if the church had taken a stronger stand all along, we wouldn’t have many of the problems that we have. The first way that the church can repent, the first way that it can move out into the arena of social reform is to remove the yoke of segregation from its own body. Now, I’m not saying that society must sit down and wait on a spiritual and moribund church as we’ve so often seen. I think it should have started in the church, but since it didn’t start in the church, our society needed to move on. The church, itself, will stand under the judgement of God. Now that the mistake of the past has been made, I think that the opportunity of the future is to really go out and to transform American society, and where else is there a better place than in the institution that should serve as the moral guardian of the community. The institution that should preach brotherhood and make it a reality within its own body.
“Social Justice and the Emerging New Age” address at the Herman W. Read Fieldhouse, Western Michigan University (18 December 1963)”

Just a minor correction. Dr. King’s words still resonate in this discussion on the issue of self segregation. We may be worse at it than when he brought it up in 1963.

Thanks again!

Thank you for this most thoughtful reply. In many ways, we’re expressing different matters of taste, not discussing a right-or-wrong isue. I certainly miss the “quality control” that megachurches offer, and am very impressed by the professionalism and biblically-based sermons I’ve heard at megachurches, not to mention the music. I certainly didn’t want to stir up animosity–rather, to help discouraged smaller churches realize they have a role to play as well. They’re the ones who tend to feel beleagured, with a minority complex. –Philip

I just wonder if we are wanting people ‘churched’. One of the greatest challenges we face is to ‘unchurch’ people i.e. for them to understand that what happens in a ‘church service’ has for the most part very little to do with what Jesus came to bring about. He came to gather people in two’s and three’s where he is in the midst of them. We do not have a shortage of ‘church’ people but there seems to be a shortage of people who are are prepared to give their all to help their neighbour and identify with those who are are different.

Community is already there. We don’t have to search for it unless we are searching for what Philip is indicating we should be careful not to join. Your neighbour is your community.

BTW – I very much like your words/insights on community.