CS Lewis: Why A Community Needs a Mission

Thanks to the 400 or so people who joined us for the Coram Deo Missional Community Bootcamp last weekend - including many who traveled from places as far away as Denver and Dayton. And thanks to Dundee Presbyterian Church for the use of their beautiful and historic building.One of the points we made at the Bootcamp was that community won't necessarily lead to mission, but mission will always lead to community. A community can't just be about "community;" it needs a mission to sustain it. This morning, a thoughtful Coram Deo attender sent me this quote from CS Lewis which makes the same point:

“Friendship arises…when two or more… discover that they have in common some insight or interest … As Emerson said, Do you love me? means Do you see the same truth? or at least  Do you care about the same truth?  The man who agrees with us that some question, little regarded by others, is of great importance can be our Friend….That is why those pathetic people who simply “want friends” can never make any.  The very condition of having friends is that we should want something else besides friends.  Where the truthful answer to the question “Do you see the same truth?” would be “I don’t care about the truth—I only want [you to be my] friend,” no friendship can arise.  Friendship must be about somthing, even if it were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice.  Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travelers." [CS Lewis, The Four Loves, quoted in Keller, The Meaning of Marriage, 113-114]