John, please understand that I am a big proponent of fellowship in Christ. This is something that happens (super)naturally when we gather around Jesus in worship and teaching. I just think we should not place the cart before the horse by making âcommunityâ our primary objective. My primary objective is to know Jesus and His word. I have immediate community with others who feel the same. Do you find that to be an unbalanced theology? Izzy
Not really. No one on this forum is making community the primary objective, Linda. What we are saying is this: there is the written record, a document to be treated with a great deal of reverence for a number of reasons and there are the various venues God has installed or appointed to bring us to the knowledge of His message. All of it -- those venues -- are a part of community. The word ("community") is not the important issue, however. Rather, the realization that the "verdict" cannot be fully understood apart from from two concerns: 1) our association with others (the Spirit, the church, teachers, preachers, etc., and the things they not only say to us but have written) and 2) the increasing aspect of maturity that is ours through and because of the workings of God in our lives (because of maturity, I see today what I simply could not see yesterday).
This is basic Spiritual Reality 101. And it is as biblical as it gets.
Pastor Smithson
