Church Is Community

I am looking at the clock right now because I know that I have to take my son, Landon, to a Boy Scout pack meeting in just a few hours. I also just thought, I have no time to finish everything I have to do. I have to be honest, after an action packed weekend, actually an action packed few months, I kind of want to just curl up and eat/sleep/play Xbox for a good week. Life is just busy! We have families to tend, houses to care for and bills to pay, not to mention the hours of work to provide the appropriate funds for that list of to-do's. This just makes time away, secluded and relaxing, that much more important...if we get it at all. Many work as many as six days, some even every day, of the week. Students work hard on their academic, extra-curricular and social lives for most if not all of their waking hours. It seems to make sense for many Christians why we need to take time in the busy-ness of life to pray and do our Bible study. We need to draw from God! We need to recharge and refresh spiritually! It just makes sense! What doesn't always make sense to us is meeting together...with other Christians. Sometimes, we have a problem understanding the importance of community.

One of the biggest reasons that community is important can be seen in one of the first things God has said about people in the history of all mankind. It comes from a passage in the creation account, Genesis 2:18a, which says, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone.'" We are not designed to be alone. I know that when life gets busy, we tend to draw away from crowds just to focus on and almost protect what is considered the most important to us. This sounds awesome! This sounds like such a good idea! The problem is that we aren't designed to do this. When caught out in extremely cold circumstances, your blood will start to leave your fingers, toes, ears and nose to protect your organs. This sounds great until your fingers, toes, ears and nose succumb to advanced frost bite. It's the same as hypothermia when in freezing water. The body is not designed to function with this extreme, inward focus. The same goes for the Body of Christ, the Church.

God designed the Church to be united and together, not just a few individuals spread over the globe. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." As the writings of Paul constantly affirm, the Church is designed to function as the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-31, and a whole bunch of other places in Paul's letters), a unified structure of people who are joined together by the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3). In short, just as people, in general, are created to be involved in each other's lives, God's new creation, followers of Jesus Christ are no different. We as Christians are even more than instructed, we are created to be involved in community with each other regularly.

Usually there are reasons why we don't involve ourselves in Church services. Some of us are too busy as stated before. It's absolutely easy to think that personal devotion and having Christian friends is enough. Body life is a good idea, but one that some of us just don't have time for. Another thing that deters people from Church community is having been hurt by a congregation of Christians, or even just a certain member of a congregation, or, let's be honest, sometimes just disagreeing with a sermon. Whatever the case may be, let me take a moment to iterate a common theme to my articles. The Bible seems to be quite clear from Genesis to Revelation that righteousness is selflessness, and selflessness means saying, "It's no longer about me. I need to get over myself." I immediately think of Philippians 2:3-4 which says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."

When we are consumed by the needs of our brothers and sisters, God uses our brothers and sisters to take care of our needs. I ask in youth group, "If everyone in this room looks after everyone in this room but themselves, how many people are looking after you? If you ignore everyone and only look after yourself, how many people are looking after you? Which number makes more sense?" This doesn't mean that we look after other people because they look after us. We are called to love regardless of whether we are loved back. We look after each other because we believe that Jesus meant it when He said, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and (money, food and clothing) will be given to you as well." When the church functioned as a group, there were no needy among them (Acts 4:34). Church community, body life, is not about getting. That would be absolute selfishness. It's about giving, not being alone, considering others above ourselves and loving the men and women that God loves and calls His children. See you at Church this Sunday!

In His Grip,

BJ