Community goes beyond just putting yourself out there and hoping to get accepted by the people you open up to. Community goes both ways. You also need to accept people who are by no means even close to perfect. They are just as messed up and dysfunctional as you are.
I work with LifeGroups (our small groups) and the main reason that people say when they want to change to another LifeGroup is that they don’t mesh well with the people in it. Now I agree that you can’t be best friends with everyone you meet, but I think that when other people annoy you, you don’t realize that you are annoying yourself. Pride is a huge roadblock to community.
Christ binds us all together under Himself. He is the key to community, not what music we like or what clothes we wear. Christ takes us beyond stereotypes and socio-economic status. Seeing Christ in other people and loving them like He tells us to is what leads us to accept others for who they are. If they are annoying that is something in us we have to deal with.
Trying to check out of one group of community and into another one is a fix that won’t last. Eventually everyone is going to annoy you and you just need to get over it and see them as children of God. See them as more important than you are because they are. We are called to be lowly servants. We are called to love everyone. Don’t let pride get in the way.
