In a Facebook group, someone brought up this:

"One cannot function in isolation from others and still be a Christian."

It has resulted in many different comments, and I have a lot of different reactions. Here are some of my thoughts.

First and foremost, there seems to be little potential benefit and much potential harm in trying to decide if we think someone else is a Christian. What is much more important is trying to live a Christ like life, trying to live a life we feel called to by God.

It reminded me of a different question that came up in that group about post-theism. It felt like the person asking the question had a lot at stake in receiving a positive response to the question and I asked why the response to the question were so important to people. I asked why the opinions of others were so important to people in the group, an honest question, which people complained about.

I really do believe we need to spend less time worrying about what we consider other people to be or worrying what they consider us to be.

Another thought was that ultimately, none of us really function in isolation. We are all connected in one way or another to others around us. The carbon dioxide we exhale may be inhaled by others. It may be converted back to oxygen by plants around us. The words we say affect others.

Some people brought up the desert hermits and it was noted that they were not in complete isolation. Some mentioned Thomas Merton, yet he was very connected to others through his words.

One issue that came up in the comments seemed to be a confusion between being in isolation and being part of a traditional Christian community or regularly visiting a building in the United States, commonly called a church.

As I think more about missional Christianity, of getting Christians out of the box they attend on Sunday mornings, I think it is important to differentiate between being in isolation and not visiting specific buildings at specific times.

Where does this leave us? The first is the command Jesus gives to love one another as He loved us. While it may be possible to love others in isolation, that seems like a rare exception. I also like the line from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, “The mission of the church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”

Restoring all people to unity with each other in Christ does not sound a lot like something normally done in isolation.