No man is an island. We've all tried and failed. Too many of us in life and ministry are lone ranger Christians. This is the most dangerous place to be. Not to mention, a very lonely place. I've met people who have been jaded by the church and have no desire to be in community because of the hurt and pain they experienced. But God has created the church to be a redemptive factor for broken and hurting people. Sadly the Church of Christ today is missing community. But Acts 2 paints a beautiful picture of the New Testament church. This has always been how God designed the church to be.
The church is the people of God and not the building. Let's look at Acts 2:42-47:
42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
We meet regularly not to socialize or play games. A missional community is when the people of God gather regularly to study God's Word and discern His will together in community. It's a powerful thing when two or more are gathered, with God at the centre, we begin to discover God. As a missional community, we should be filled with awe and expect miracles from God, this is not an exception. The Bible says we should be on the same page and 'want' to meet together and share a meal and meeting each other's needs.
So many people are 'too' busy to be in community. In your church do you desire to be in relationship with others, to meet regularly and study God's Word, and to share a meal together, or is that too inconvenient and time consuming?
Building relationship takes work and God's blessing and favour pours out as we come together as a community to lavish our praise to Him and God grows the church!
I desire to see this kind of community and to do "life together" as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says. Do you desire to do life together and be in community?
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