Building a Wall of Community in Order to Facilitate Cultural Transformation
Why is creating an authentic Christian community so important that radically changing our approach to Sunday morning worship services is justified? It is an excellent question and one I want to seek to answer.
I’ll begin by asking another question: How was the 1st Century Church able to thrive in the midst of a pagan and idolatrous culture and raise up several generations of faithful believers? As a campus pastor, I heard from many, both pastors and parents alike, who expressed fear of how the university culture might affect their young people. A family pastor once told me that he would never send his own children or recommend any of the church youth to go to a “secular” university. And indeed, there is reason for concern, not necessarily about the “wokeness” of a university education, but rather on the inability of young people and adults to resist the influence of the culture in which they live.
Consider what is now influencing the perspectives and beliefs of Christians today. Most influence is coming from outside the Church. Most news outlets and influencers cater their content to what they think will gain the larger audience, which means the pursuit of truth is secondary. And in our present moment, outrage is the dominant currency. A 30–40-minute sermon once a week cannot compete. So, we face a conundrum. Keep things the way they are, face little pushback, and have little true influence, or change things up, get a lot of pushback, but begin to lay the groundwork for godly transformation.
This brings us back to my questions. The 1st Century Church had a genuine community from which everything else flowed. That is how they were able to counter the beliefs and effects of the Roman and Greek cultures. Because they were in community centered on their love of Jesus, they were taught the Scriptures and how to live them out. They discussed the teachings among themselves, prayed and worshiped together, and served others together. The influence was coming from within the community rather than outside. There are numerous biblical warnings about the influence of outsiders, people bringing false teachings into the Church (e.g., I Timothy 1:3-4 , Galatians 1:6-10). And what we see in churches today are those outside influences gaining a foothold. Whether these are “liberal” or “conservative” perspectives, many are bringing them into their churches. If we are to learn anything from the 1st Century believers, it must be that building authentic community centered around Jesus is the only way to combat the influences of the culture at-large and make the Church a beacon of light to outsiders. Nothing else will work. This is why the changes I have been advocating over the past couple of months are justified. They are the first steps toward establishing a sense of community in any church worship service. Reducing the time committed to worship through music, shortening the sermon and allowing discussion of its points, praying for one another, and hearing how the Lord is working in other people’s lives will be helpful to begin creating true community, and thus laying the groundwork for life transformation.
It won’t happen overnight. This is the long slog of discipleship and obedience. But I do believe it can happen if we are committed to developing real community as opposed to “doing church” every week.
The currents of our culture are swift, swirling around the Church and often finding their way in. As exemplified by the early Church, the wall of community can provide similar protection against these outside influences by muting their impact. I believe it is time for us to get to work constructing it and once again for the Church to be a transformation agent for the culture.
Until next time. . .
© Jim Musser 2026
