Community is essential to being a Christian…but what is it?  Is it being in a small group at your church?  Is it having significant relationship with others?  Is it the people who live in your same geographic space?

How we define community determines how we follow Jesus.  As it has been said, "A person become a person through other people" (and I believe that "A Christian becomes a Christian through other Christians").  It is impossible to follow Jesus without community.  One only needs to look up the phrase, "one another" in the scriptures to realize that it is impossible to be a follower of Jesus in isolation.

But what is community?

I think that this thing we all jazz can help point us in a fresh direction.  What is it that allows the same people to play the same song night after night and yet still be interested in each other and what they are doing?  What allows a jazz musician from one city to walk into a jazz venue in another and join a group of other musicians–that she has never met–and yet they sound as if they have jammed together on many occasions?

The answer is community, but it’s a different kind of community.