By Rodney Martin

The word “communitas” is not one we use on a regular basis. Perhaps we have never even heard of this word. And now LMC is using it, and it can seem strange and alien. This strangeness does not diminish the significant meaning that communitas has for LMC in being a Spirit-led, disciple-making, Jesus Movement. To be a movement necessitates a church culture that has characteristics and practices to foster multiplication.

Communitas is one of the essential practices for movement because a group of people on mission together will have the focus and unity in spirit needed to be missionaries. The disciples following Christ are an example of communitas. They were more than a social gathering; they were a group banded together for a shared purpose and experience. This is vividly evident when Jesus sends the disciples out two-by-two into the surrounding towns and countryside to preach the gospel and heal the sick.

We may think of missionaries as lone individuals, but in Luke 10 it is as a communitas that the disciples are sent together on mission. Jesus told them, “‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’” (Luke 10:2, ESV). The seventy-two disciples are then sent out with this shared message of hope and good news. But Jesus also prepares them for when they are not received. He tells them to share a warning with those who do not welcome them and to wipe the dust off their feet. The disciples shared in their rejections as well.

This is communitas: a group of people on a journey together, joined together with a shared mission with Christ through all of the highs and lows. With LMC, the Bishop Elders are a communitas I get to experience. The four of us are a community who are bonded together for a purpose. We have the shared experience of leading LMC into our mission of being Spirit-led.

Since LMC changed our mission statement almost five years ago to being a Spirit-led movement, the Bishop Elders have worked together in this unknown space to listen to God and learn what this change means for us across the whole of LMC. We have faced this challenge as a team, ready and willing to share the ups and downs together. We are journeying as one in a way that makes our task more than just an executive role. Rather, we are on an adventure together into the new horizons God has for us.

So yes, “communitas” is a strange and alien word. So too is the mission God is calling us to. All around the world the church is being called to move forward as a fellowship of believers on mission together as communitas. Because without communitas—people on mission together with the Holy Spirit—the church remains just a gathering behind four walls.

Rodney Martin serves on the Bishop Elder Team and is also one of the Bishops for the Conestoga River District. He has a Master of Divinity with a focus on missiology and has a passion to see the church in movement.