The different personalities and personal idiosyncrasies that make Christian community so vibrant also make it fraught with relational peril. Extroverts sometimes use the community to give the illusion of relational intimacy when really they’re just using people. Introverts often distance themselves from Christian community, retreating into the alleged safety of their solitude, effectively saying, “I have no need of you.” Bonhoeffer says about this dual dynamic: “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.”8
