Oh what a day!It’s Wednesday and that means many things to focus on for the upcoming Sunday.Wednesday also means all church dinner at 5:30 and the Francis Schaeffer film series “What ever happened to the Human Race”.I enjoy Wednesday nights.The all church dinner is a great time for people to interact, touch base with each other, and enjoy company.
Which leads me to my little blog today called— Community matters.Community matters because the church is not just a “time” to meet.Nor is it a just a “place” to meet.The community is just that—Community.Dicitonary.com defines community like this:
a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
The words “social group” stand out in my mind as the key for community.Social means- again defined in Dictionary.com:
living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation: People are social beings.
I truly do appreciate companionship rather than isolation.Yet—there are those in our community that are isolated.Is it intentional?Is the isolation due to the community’s lack of reaching out within itself?Is the community responsible for isolation?I certainly don’t know why some people are isolated or maybe even choose to isolate.That being said, I do know that isolation is not a healthy posture long term.
People were created to be social.People, all people are created in the image of God.God is highly relational i.e. the Trinity.The interaction of God the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit.The 3 parts of God, all seperate and all one--all interact with one another.Since man was created in His image—interacting with others is part of our inner being.
As a leader of a church, I so desire to create opportunities for people to interact.To have many opportunities to enjoy, fellowship, rub shoulders with, care about, touch, embrace others—because that is who we were created to be.
Secondly, if I really believe in Jesus’ commission to reach all people—then isolating will never cut it.Nor will we be about people outside of “our community”if we can’t do it within our community.Yes,community matters- because it is a starting place for valuing relationships, valuing others, valuing our creator.
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, loveoneanother deeply, from the heart.”
