Community is Center of our Lives

Summary

Erin Lane is the author of the book, Lessons in Belonging from a Church-Going Commitment Phobe, which she describes as a book for “people who like the idea of church but feel disillusioned by the reality of the people who make it up.” (p. 15) Early on in the book she re-tells this story:

“A woman … took a hammer to her new car. That’s right. She took a hammer to her own car. I imagined it sitting in the driveway as she approached. Maybe her husband stood looking on. Or maybe he couldn’t bear to watch, the weight of every penny spent felt in his gut. Either way, the outcome was the same. Her hammer met the steel frame and it buckled beneath the force. You might be confused by this surprising move…But her action makes perfect sense to me…Hitting the brand-new car with a hammer released the woman and her husband from worrying about that first ding. There would be no anxiety when parking next to some beat-up truck—no ambition for resale or getting their money’s worth. There was only the hope that this dented body would carry them where they needed to go and the acceptance that it was theirs to tend.” (p. 14) And then Erin Lane adds, that this is how she imagines the church, as a vehicle of disillusionment.