By Fr. Parker Love

The first season of the cult-favourite sitcom, Community, is a bit of an odd duck. In later seasons, the diverse cast will do things like learn to be con men, shut down the whole school for a game of “hot lava,” play Dungeons and Dragons with such immersion that viewers forget they are watching a sitcom, or even set up a traditional “clip episode” that turns into all-new short gags that have never been seen before. But it isn’t until late in the first season, that the hijinks the show is best known for even begin. Before the famous paintball episode where the school is basically destroyed (only to be repaired with little lasting remnant by the next episode), Community is a relatively normal sitcom. There is a quirky and unique cast, love triangles, and a series of improbable (but down-to-earth) scenarios that all seem to occur in the same few spaces.

But why? Why does Community change so rapidly, and even though that change happens so fast, why did it take so long to get there? Some would say that the reason is that the show took a while to find its voice. This argument isn’t totally unreasonable; many shows take a season or two to really discover what kind of show they want to be and who their characters are. I think that there is a different answer, however, and I think, strangely enough, that answer offers an important analogy to the process of Christian evangelization.

In her book, Forming Intentional Disciples, Sherry Weddell identifies five steps to evangelization and conversion. They are: trust, curiosity, openness, seeking, and finally, intentional discipleship. The steps are pretty self explanatory, but it’s worthwhile pointing out concretely that for Weddell, evangelization does not begin with catechesis. Rather, she argues that before any real catechesis can occur, there needs to be a relationship of trust between the evangelizer and the evangelized. The evangelizer can take many forms: it can be an understanding of a divine Spirit as it acts in the world, it could be the institution of the Church and the importance she plays in society, or it could be a Christian person with whom a deep relationship has formed. However, as our culture becomes more and more materialistic and distracted from the wonder of sacred silence by the seemingly infinitude of minor distractions, it becomes harder and harder to trust that people will notice the Spirit making the first move. Likewise, as scandal upon scandal continues to rock the Church, it is fair to say that she lacks the same credibility that she might have once held with the secular world. Thus, we must, as Christians, form relationships with non-Christians, on the basis of trust, not on the basis of evangelization or a desire to catechize. This endeavour might simply be called: “make genuine relationships.”

So what does this all have to do with Community? Community uses the majority of its first season to build trust with its audience. We gain affection for those quirky characters so that when they do outrageous things, we can easily imagine having the same kind fun with them and can therefore excuse the fantastic parts.

I’m not sure what your experience with evangelization has been like, but I’ve had little luck with people when I coldly approach them and ask if they’ve heard the good news. Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters take noble steps to preach at the corner of busy intersections or walk door to door, but while I can’t be certain of the kind of success that they have, I am confident declaring that a big segment of our population doesn’t take them seriously, and some find them down right hostile.

My vision of the Church is, fittingly, a giant community—a diverse group of people who know, love, and serve each other and the Lord. The relationships that form these communities don’t form spontaneously; Jesus spent three full years travelling with his Apostles before handing them the Church, and He did so only when He assured them to that His advocate would continue to be with them. When we divide the necessary steps in building community from forming faith-filled community, it is clear that our endeavour would be no success. Community, a sitcom about a bunch of misfits at potentially the strangest Community College in the world, can teach us about the how trust is an essential part of a relationship, and how relationships are vital for building deep relationship; deep relationships like that which foster growth of faith.

Fr Parker Love is a Priest for the Archdiocese of Regina. Ordained in the summer of 2019, Fr Parker serves as Pastor at St Augustine Parish in Wilcox, Saskatchewan and as the Archdiocese’s Vocation Director. Somehow, in the midst of this, he still finds too much time to consume media in the form of books, tv shows, and movies. To justify that over indulgence, he also (occasionally) hosts a podcast called Cold Drinks, Questions, and Christ, which can be found here, or anywhere you get podcasts.