A News of the Good Story
A couple years ago, Jonathan and his family were attending a big church in northern Illinois - one of those campuses with music like a concert and high-production programming. The buzz was exciting, but as time passed, they felt a growing sense that it was just too big and too far away from their home to get deeply connected. They believed that community was a core component of the good life, but were unsure how to make it a reality. Then their daughter offered, “why don’t we go to the church that we can see from our porch?”
At first, Jonathan wondered if this traditional, liturgical church reminiscent of a one-room schoolhouse might pale in comparison to their previous church. However, his family quickly discovered that something was happening in their neighborhood church that was just as compelling, if not more so: the goodness of an imperfect, involved, and loving church community. The camaraderie and belonging they discovered there struck a chord and they never looked back. “It’s a spectacular fit. It’s small. It’s full of life though."
So what makes this church of only 40-60 people work when so many other churches fall apart or gradually fade into oblivion? Jonathan’s church has a shared goal that everyone has bought into: they’re not striving for perfection - they’re striving for community. What they’re going for is “a deep sense of everyone contributing to making this thing happen," and this frees the church body to allocate their attention and resources toward the things that truly nourish the community. The church is small enough for everyone to have a role to play and something to contribute, which creates a spirit of ownership, agency, and collaboration. Jonathan found his role in altar care.
Altar care refers to anything up in the front of the sanctuary - the flowers, the communion, the candles. Jonathan makes sure that there are live flowers every week, simply because "everyone likes it. We tried fake flowers for a while, or flowers only on special occasions, but nobody liked that.” In the summer, the many gardeners in the congregation add whatever they have growing in their garden to the altar bouquet, directly shaping their church environment with the resources they have.
The beauty of the altar is a gift to the congregation, but it's also a gift to Jonathan. When he goes to set up the altar on a Friday or Saturday evening, he gets a quiet, undistracted moment to pray, meditate, and just be present in the sanctuary. This behind-the-scenes time with God feeds his soul, and it also allows him to carry on a family legacy. His grandmother was in charge of altar care at her church for decades, and Jonathan often helped her with it when he was a kid. He says with a smile, “I didn’t actually realize she had done it for 40 years when I said I wanted to do it [at my church]. So the joke is, I guess I committed to a lifetime appointment.”
Jonathan's involvement doesn't stop there. He's also a part of the men's group. Once a month, the men in the church go out for breakfast at the least expensive breakfast place in town. Everybody contributes $20. The pooled amount pays for their meal and anything left over goes towards church maintenance - batteries, nails, stuff like that. After breakfast, they head over to the church and get to work fixing things and keeping the building in good shape. In the summer, they bring out the air conditioners, and in the fall, they bring them in. Participating in a church community doesn't require a theology degree or tons of free time. What it does require is buy-in and commitment. It requires you to show up and offer what you have.
Jonathan’s church relentlessly reinforces the importance of community through the sermons and prayers they choose, events they facilitate, how they treat each other, and how they speak about those outside of their community. This shared priority deepens their bond, and Jonathan has also noticed that it acts as powerful force against division. The polarizing things they could fight about don’t have the final say, because they are first and foremost a church body dedicated to loving one another.
"We all have this idea of what the ideal community looks like and what we would want to get out of our community. There’s a tendency to think those things in our head, maybe go on social media and type about how much we don’t like whatever’s going on. The only way to get the community that you want is to actually go out and do it."
Many of us have felt a degree of disillusionment with church or how Christians interact with the broader world. We wonder, are we even reading the same book? Are we following the same Jesus? The belonging and connectedness we long for can seem elusive, if not impossible, and the process of finding a new community is daunting. Where do we begin?
Eugene Peterson, pastor and creator of The Message, attended a small, 80-member church. On Krista Tippet's podcast On Being, this was his advice to those wondering how to pick a church:
“Go to the closest church where you live, and the smallest. And if, after six months, it’s just not working, go to the next smallest." Tippet asked, "What is it about small rather than big?" and Peterson responded, "Because you have to deal with people as they are. And you’ve got to learn how to love them when they’re not lovable."
If you’re feeling lonely or in need of a new church, you’re not alone. Jonathan was there only a couple years ago. Now he's immersed in a community beyond what he could imagine, and it's only a few steps from his front door. What helped him find the right church was discerning and centering his core value - community - and giving the church he could see from his porch a chance. Perhaps that’s a good place to start.
Do you have a News of the Good story? Send it to us here! All stories matter and your story may be exactly what someone else needs to hear right now.
Emerson Slaughter is the social media manager at the Holy Post and also works on events and communications. She wants to hear more good news about church and community - send her your stories here!
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