building community in your life:
• Get involved in a church. We’ re not talking about getting your name on the membership list. We’ re talking about serving, getting to know people, and getting involved in ministry. You cannot read the New Testament and come away with the idea that being an active part of a church body is not important. It is!
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God’ s Design for Us: Community
Nineteenth-century poet John Donne famously wrote,“ No man is an island.” He went on to describe people as parts of a continent, all interconnected. Just as Europe becomes smaller when a mere clod of its land washes out to sea, so each of us is diminished, he said, by the death of any individual. We are part of the whole and belong to each other. 2
This analogy accurately portrays God’ s intent for His people. From the moment God created the first man, He declared,“ It is not good for the man to be alone”( Gen. 2:18).
Even God
Himself is one in three. The three Persons of the Trinity— God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit— exist in relationship with one another. Made in His image, we too are meant to live in relationship with others. Before His death, Jesus prayed for His followers that they might be one as He and the Father are one( John 17:11).
The Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes echoes the idea that people need each other. Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 says:“ Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm?”
This concept of living in community with others, particularly with other believers, is fleshed out in New Testament teachings about how Christians make up the body of Christ. Like the various parts of our physical bodies, we are interdependent; we need each other( 1 Cor. 12:12-26). We are to be concerned for each other. When one of us suffers, that suffering should bring pain to the rest. When one of us receives some honor, everyone in the body should be glad about it.
Within the body, we all have different spiritual gifts, like teaching, preaching, or serving, to name a few. These are given by God so His people can work together to build up the body of Christ( Eph. 4:11-13). As members of Christ’ s body, we are instructed to love one another deeply and to serve one another( 1 Pet. 1:22; 4:8-10), to carry each others’ burdens and to help those caught in sin( Gal. 6:1-2). God’ s design for the community of believers is that we be a support network, an accountability system, a team, and a family. His intention is that we do life together, not alone.
What Community Looks Like: Sharing
During the 1960s, a phenomenon of American culture was the commune. In communes, people( your grandparents call them hippies) lived together in groups, sharing all their resources. Their way of life was aimed at rejecting materialism and getting back to nature. 3
But communes neither originated nor ended with hippies. They have been present throughout history in different cultures, and there was an element of communal life in the early church. Acts 2:42-47 describes the early church life as one in which members held their possessions in common, sharing with one another and selling what they owned to help those among them in need. They met together daily for meals, fellowship, teaching, and prayer.
Living in community with other believers today doesn’ t necessarily mean sharing all property. But it certainly does demand a willingness to share with those among us in need. It also involves hospitality— opening not just our homes but our hearts and lives to one another. That means being transparent, or real, with others, sharing and caring about what’ s going on in our lives.
Living in community also means being inclusive. Galatians 3:27-28 says,“ For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” God welcomes all who receive Christ into His family. No one is excluded,
30 | jul 2009 ec magazine