There’s a pressing need for the local church to be integrated. By integration I mean, for members (and non-members) of a local church to interact in an ongoing and deeper level relationally. This means giving yourself to others in a way that feels like you’re losing yourself to the bigger group. As the title of Mehl’s book suggests, this demands “loving messy people,” taking your place in messy relationships. Furthermore, integration appears increasingly unlikely, given the culture wars, among countless other polarising issues and deep societal rifts. But this only highlights the necessity of greater integration. If we fail now, long-term damage to the Church is inevitable.
In the Beginning: (Dis)Integration
Writing before the turn of the century, Keller explains why there is such a tremendous need for integration among believers. Only, it isn’t ultimately because of the various reasons people offer up. Keller goes deeper, and further back. He turns to Genesis 3 to show that soon after mankind’s beginning we became “disintegrated.” Commenting on Adam’s sin, Keller writes: “When man determined to be his own master, the immediate result was a multidimensional condition of alienation.” One of these dimensions is our “social disintegration,” which makes us unable to live with each other.
Whatever our social problems, they come down to the same thing: sin.
Consider what happens immediately after Adam and Eve ate. “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Genesis 3:7). Before this, they would’ve likely had no concept of ‘privacy.’ There was no need to hide from each other. Just as they walked unafraid with God in the cool of the day, they could do so with each other (Genesis 3:8-10). But after sin entered their hearts, hiding became both a norm and a need. Disintegration runs deep.
Whatever our social problems, they come down to the same thing: sin. Thus Keller writes, “Those on the Left will blame them (the Right) for injustice, greed, racism, imperialism, war, and oppression. Those on the Right will blame them (the Left) for family breakdown, crime, personal immorality, selfishness, and a lack of discipline. Both are right! Our social problems are myriad: loneliness, interpersonal conflicts, marital and family problems, poverty, class struggle, constant political confrontation, and ineffectiveness. All are the results of sin.”
No aspect of life is unaffected by this disintegration, by sin.
In Christ: Reconciliation
This challenge doesn’t disappear when we become Christians. Although we’re justified by faith, we are still sinners. Because we bring this sin into the church we resist integration. We prefer to live apart, keeping relationships shallow.
We colour this with popular cultural language, such as ‘me time’ or ‘self-care.’ Sometimes we hide behind psychological categories such as ‘social anxiety’ (which, of course, may be true). But often the cause lurking behind our fear of richer and more vulnerable fellowship is the sinful tendency towards disintegration and distancing ourselves from others.
Often lurking behind our fear of more vulnerable fellowship is the tendency towards disintegration.
It was no different in the 1st century. Paul had to exhort the Gentiles, writing: “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ” (Ephesians 2:12). On top of this, they’d been deemed inferior because of their uncircumcision (Ephesians 2:11). They were disengaged, alienated both from God and other people. But through Christ’s death, Paul goes on, God brought them near to God and to each other (Ephesians 2:13).
In the Church: Community
This doesn’t mean the church should be cavalier about family ties, national identity, tribe, and race. Indeed, the church must speak to social issues and societal injustice. But this shouldn’t come at the expense of preaching against what lies beneath all of that: sin. Simply put, the answer to tackle disintegration caused by sin doesn’t start with practical steps of integration. It is, rather, to challenge believers to prioritise the unity they have in Christ above every other social circle.
People want deeper connections.
In other words, to live apart from others, let alone other believers, is a sin before God. And the church must work against this temptation and culture’s technological agenda towards disintegration.
The good news is that most people, whether they intentionally engage in integration or not, want deeper connections. One writer says that “we yearn to be part of a community that discovers and clings to identity, worth, and value.” For me, this yearning on a general level is the common humanity we share with fellow people. And for the Christian, it is the intimacy we were created for. Sin corrupted relationships. It sowed division and disintegration. But we can be restored in Christ. Only this will require the daily exercise of spiritual growth and maturity.
In the Present: Strive for Integration
Regardless of our preferences, quirks, biases, bad habits, fears, and even our sin that keeps us from integrating, “Christ himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14). So biblical integration isn’t so much about overcoming these barriers. Rather it means we can rejoice and take advantage of the barrier that is no longer there. That is, sin. In Christ’s peace we can make the circle bigger. We can strive to be part of greater integration and deeper community, despite our differences.
We fix our eyes and hearts on Jesus who came to make the two one.
Paul’s “one another” exhortations to the first churches are ours as well. We come to one another, serve one another, rejoice with one another, and mourn with one another in Christ’s peace. And although the dividing walls are our default setting, though we instinctively keep others out, desiring to live apart, we fix our eyes and hearts on Jesus who came to make the two one; to include outsiders; and give up our privacy so that others might be brought close.
In the Future
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, biblical integration is a necessary Christian practice. For me personally, I can do better in this area. I mean, Sunday after Sunday and throughout the week God invites me to greater and more satisfying integration in the lives of those around me. As a church then we must remember two things. Firstly, we are not where we once were, living apart. Praise God. But, secondly, we’re not where we want to be, when the peace of Christ shines profoundly before those looking in. So pursue integration.
