Thursday, February 26th

Before we go any further, some of you may be thinking. Who is my community? What is the level of community I need to have? I won’t get into the deep weeds of this, but what do we see with Jesus? Jesus spent time with three (Peter, James, and John), obviously the twelve, he also invested in about another 70 other followers, and of course the needs of the masses. It isn’t about the exact numbers as much as it is different types of community for different reasons, all about giving and receiving love.

Which leads me to the last observation. Spiritual growth and healing happens in community.
Hebrews 10:24-25-
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 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.

See the value of coming together, meeting together, spurring one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up, especially as we come closer to Jesus’ return. We are going to need one another more and more as we face uncertainty.

This is speaking to the value of consistently meeting and being together, especially as the Body of Christ, the Church. As we have on the back wall, we desire to be a place to believe, belong and become, which happens in relationship. But that’s also why we have the values we have. Many folks see our values and they question them or they think we should have different “church” values.

Yet, when I look at what Jesus came to do, rebuild a community and invite us into being people of love, it is going to be messy, we are going to have to risk, we are going to have to know one another’s story, we are going to have to see below the surface and step beyond what is comfortable. All of our values fly in the face of society and the challenges of community. But it is also why this is so hard, but necessary. It’s hard and necessary because growth and healing are worth it.

Joseph Hellerman, in his book, When the Church was a Family, puts it very pointedly. “Spiritual formation occurs primarily in the context of community. Persons who remain contented with their brothers and sisters in their local church almost invariably grow in self-understanding. This is especially the case for those courageous Christians who stick it out through the always messy process of interpersonal discord and conflict resolution. Long-term interpersonal relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life. People who stay, grow. People who leave, do not grow.”

Folks, if you’ve been around New Life for any amount of time, you will hear me say, “I have a wake of broken relationships.” Some I have caused and some that have been done to me. I have never said I am the perfect leader, if anything, I probably fall on the sword more than I should. But I will say, when people ask me, “what’s going on with church, why isn’t so and so here.” I believe this is why. Relationships are hard and people believe it is “easier” to walk away, then face into the hard work of biblical community.

Many people idolize the early church, we need to get back to the early church, they fail to remember that the early church was a hot mess. There were broken relationships all over, why do you think Paul, Peter, and John challenge us in the way that they did.

The early church made the difference it did because of the power of the Holy Spirit and the willingness of the people to keep at it, no matter how hard it was.