Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Loneliness is something that everyone feels sooner or later in life. You can be lonely even in the midst of a crowd of people. . . even a crowd of Christians. The community that the Bible, in the book of Acts, presents as “normal” is the example of the early church. They lived together or so near each other that they could meet together daily and share meals and fellowship with each other. They knew each other so well that they were aware of the needs of the poor, widowed, orphans or those who were in any kind of distress or need. There were even instructions to have the older men and women to care for the younger men and women, disciple them and watch out for the welfare of each other. The New Testament church was an example to the world as a community of love that reflected the love of God.

True Christian community was not just a building or a place to go once a day or week. It was not about attendance or service to an organization. The early Christian interacted with each other so regularly that they even had “issues”. They argued and sinned. Because nothing is perfect when people live and work together, problems came up and had to be addressed. The early Christians failed at community and sometimes did things or said things “rubbed each other the wrong way”. There were also times where they were disciplined or had to be reminded of the truth that they had heard. They had to be very close to each other to be aware of “heart” problems and issues of faith.

Our modern church deems that you are part of community if you serve in the nursery, choir, parking committee, etc . . . or if you have perfect attendance at most of the functions of that fellowship. Some Christians actually base their level of commitment to the church as allowing them to be worthy of being a part of the fellowship. This is how I used to think. But what if your service and attendance is not enough and still leaves a gaping hole of emptiness in your spirit and soul? We humans are built for community; for fellowship with God and men. We are made to not only have a deep relationship with God but also with others. We Christians have even moved to a level where admitting to having a need for a relationship with others is paramount to not “trusting in God” to meet it. We are supposed to be the hands and feet of God here on this earth. It doesn’t matter how close you walk with God, you require the arms of others to hold you when you are suffering, laugh with you when you are rejoicing, protect you from harm or the perils of this world, etc. There are Christians that depending on the circumstances in their life, they need the protection and wisdom of others in order to stay on the straight and narrow. They need accountability and also wisdom to navigate out of the arms reach of those who might exploit their wounded hearts and spirits.



What an example we must be to the non believers. They produce popular television shows on living in community, like “Friends” or “Cheers”. We as humans long to live in “Mayberry” and be neighbors and friends to each other. No matter how dysfunctional “Cheers” seems, it is still a community built and based in a bar, where each character relates to the others. It is like a “pseudo” family built on the things happening around them in a world of pleasure and pain. The theme song to Cheers is really the cry of each individual, if you are honest with yourself. We all long to be in a place “where everybody knows our name”. We need to be known, loved and understood by others. Even our superheroes, Batman, Superman, The Lone Ranger, suffer with loneliness, because they can never really expose who they truly are.

The closest I have ever come to living in a community environment was when I was a flight attendant. The flight crew was a team that worked together, ate together, went touring or partying, suffered injustice at the hands of the airline, weather or broken down equipment. We even slept together when there were not enough hotel rooms and more. We were all away from our families and friends for sometimes months at a time, during holidays and birthdays. We were all that each other had and we knew it. Personal differences were generally put aside when we were required to stick together in the foreign lands we traveled to. We watched out for each other and rescued each other from perils. Generally, as flight crew, we would get to know each other deeply in the first twenty minutes of the flight, before we reached 10,000 feet. We called it “jump seat therapy”. We were open and talked about everything. I loved being part of that community.

In contrast, recently I have experienced a Christian community where in the midst of it; I have never felt lonelier. There are smiles and lots of “How are you?”, but no real interaction or commitment to one another. Building relationships takes energy and time. Something that we Americans don’t have very much of. . . There is a day coming where Christians will have to build community and become just like the early Christians who sometimes met in the Catacombs just to fellowship without persecution. I long to help build this type of interactive society. I want to be part of this type of community . . . a place where “Everybody knows” each other’s name.

Lyrics to "Cheers" theme song

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.