In our Sunday worship gathering on 1/8/12, we discussed what the church is, why it exists, and how to remain on target and mission as a church. This is such a huge topic of conversation that we weren’t able to even get close to looking at all of it. So, I wanted to drop another thought into the mix.
We spent a fair amount of time discussing community and our inability to truly be the church without it. We can’t live Christianity on an island or isolated from the larger Church body. I would also make the argument that trickles down into the need to be in a local church body. The church community is where we live and practice the precepts of Christianity and its also where we find care for ourselves and give care to others.
As we discussed Romans 15:7 and the command to accept one another, we discovered 2 important reasons for doing this. 1) We show the Gospel to others and how God has accepted us in Christ; and 2) We show the glory of God to those who are not in God’s family yet.
I’d like to add another thought to the entire discussion about community: its importance and benefits. Just a random thought from Christian artist Linnea Gabriella Spransy: “I’ve chosen to live in community and live simply. That makes a lot of space for me in the practical spheres of my life…. Community puts us in a place where we can’t hide our worst and our best, and so there’s incredible opportunity for discipleship…. In community that is caring and healthy,…we can become a source of joy, blessing and the voice of God in other people’s lives.”
Let’s chose to live in community and to pursue a healthy environment to be the church that God wants us and the world needs us to be!