Community requires intentionality and cultivation
Think of something that happens quickly. A roller coaster ride. A microwave meal. A vacation. Slamming a finger in the door. (Yikes!) Ice melting on a hot sidewalk. That addictive series on Netflix.
Raising kids. Nope.
Growing a garden. No.
Starting a church. Definitely not!
Building community. We wish.
If community could happen fast, we’d call it another name—like the newest neighborhood in town or a yahoo group. And I won’t answer for you, but I’m not necessarily looking for another group to be a part of!
We want to be a community that inhales the gospel and exhales authenticity.
What you and I are wanting to build and be a part of is a community that can’t be described or defined by the world’s standards. We want to be a community that inhales the gospel and exhales authenticity.
This requires time. Community is commitment. It requires you. The truest of you, no doubt. Community will not happen with a bunch of hypocrites. It certainly won’t last. God designed His Church to be a people who are highly committed to Him and to one another. It’s what Christ prayed for. This requires intentionality. I am positive that for most of my 20s, and the greater half of my 30s, I wanted to be intentional without doing the work. Well, self, that’s not intentionality. Intentions in and of themselves are ideas that never reach planet earth. They are floating in the clouds and never produce much of anything. Intentions are plans. Intentionality is to make good on those plans. Intentionality is an investment.
Before we can begin to cultivate community, we have to ask ourselves if we are fully committed with our time, our truest selves, and will treat this as an investment. If the answer is yes, then how do we cultivate community?
He is the foundation for community. You can’t cultivate community if you haven’t first planted Jesus.
Do what the Bible says.
{It’s how you prepare for it.} He told us we would be His witnesses in Acts 1. We would tell His story. We are commissioned to invest in those in our church that are seeking. Those who are on board with the vision of our church. Tell our story to those that don’t come to church yet. Ask them their story. Point them to Jesus as we tell them what we do on Sundays and how our values are built upon His teachings in the Scriptures. He is the foundation for community. You can’t cultivate community if you haven’t first planted Jesus.
Reap what you sow.
{It’s how you grow it.} Galatians 5:9 tells us “not to grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Doing good is practiced in a number of ways in Scripture: practice hospitality, give to those in need, love others like you love yourself and serve one another. Reaping is the reward for sowing. Sowing is where the intentionality takes root. It’s week in and week out. It’s faithfully praying for those in your small group or on your serve team. Sowing is checking in on them throughout the week with a text or phone call or coffee date. Sowing is hurting when they hurt and celebrating when they are celebrating. Reaping is seeing God work through our sowing.
Entrust it into the Father’s hands.
{It’s how you sustain it.} Philippians 4:6-7 tells us that we are to give everything to God with prayer and petition with thanksgiving. That’s what it looks like to entrust. We do our part, and God will always do His. What was so substantial in the community that was formed in the book of Acts was that the disciples did their part, and God did His. Maybe you’ve experienced it before—the community that you’re praying to form begins to have pockets of meaningful conversation, you see needs being met by one another, you’re hearing stories of God’s faithfulness. While we can’t hold God to our timetable, we can certainly count on Him to never stop loving His people.
Sowing is hurting when they hurt and celebrating when they are celebrating. Reaping is seeing God work through our sowing.
Back to the first century church in Acts, believers were forming community “day by day.” And the Lord was adding to their number “day by day.” Acts 2:46-47
So Church, let’s be with the people and for the people in our most truest selves in the name of Christ. We can count on Him doing His part in strengthening the body of believers through community.
Published May 25, 2016
