Becoming a Community Pt. 2
I used to have these books for teen small groups that would give you discussion starter questions. These were questions that ranged from silly to serious and were designed to get your thoughts going and to encourage dialogue in our group. I remember there was one question that seemed to pop up over and over again. There would be slight variations but it was basically the desert island question. If you were stranded on a deserted island, what would you take with you or who would want to be stuck with or something to that effect. This would always make for some good conversation and the kids could be really creative with their answers. You always had the kid who would look up at his girlfriend with those puppy dog eyes and say that he would take her. The rest of us are gagging. Then there was the one who would always give you the Sunday School answer. I would take my Bible. That’s a great answer! Everyone knows that he’s lying through his teeth but if it was sincere it would be a great answer. We had some fun with those questions. Over the years, there have been a lot of stories, jokes, movies and televisions shows centered on this idea of being stranded on a deserted island.
Of all the stories, none have even come close to the gripping drama of Gilligan’s Island. By the time I was watching it, it was in re-runs but it would come on right after the Brady Bunch and my brother and sisters and I would sit and watch the adventures of this unfortunate group who had only wanted a three hour tour. What made the show so funny was the unique and different personalities of each of the castaways. The Skipper was smart and fearless, he knew how to take charge and lead the group. The Howells were filthy rich and they knew how to handle anything that required a knack for business and administration. Mary-Ann was the comforter and encourager, always ready with a coconut pie for whoever was feeling down. The professor was better than McGyver. He could figure out a way to fix any problem, other than the fact that they were stuck, with one of his incredible inventions. Ginger could act and she could get them out of whatever jam they were in with whoever was visiting the island at the time. And Gilligan was the one with the servant’s heart. He would do anything for anyone and usually mess it up but it was always done with a great heart. It was a great show. It was also a great picture of a community. They survived because they each complimented each others strengths. They worked together and because of that, they were able to handle whatever each new episode challenged them with. I was watching a rerun this week and it struck me that they provided for each other, all of the benefits that we talked about last week as we began to look at becoming a community. They each had a sense of belonging, that their gifts and talents were important. They each felt that sense of support that the others provided, their lives were intertwined together. When Gilligan got upset and felt unloved, he moved into a cave by himself on the other side of the island. He quickly realized that he couldn’t survive without the support of the others. He had lost the third benefit, that sense of wholeness that comes through community. He knew that he needed the rest of the group and that together they could accomplish things that he could never do alone. It’s a picture of community. A group of people, maintaining their individuality and uniqueness but coming together as one to live life together and move towards one goal, in their case, to get off the island, in our case, to advance the Kingdom of God here on Earth. We could learn a lot from this group.
This is the kind of community and togetherness that we see in the early church and this is what we can see in this place. But how does it begin. We already talked about the benefits of community last week, and next week we’ll look at some of the barriers, but this morning, I want to look at the building blocks. Last week we defined community as: A unified body of individuals with common character and common interests, who share joint ownership and participation in something.
The early church fit this definition but what was it that really made them a community. Acts 2:44 tells us the two essential ingredients to building community, two things that were the foundation of the development of community in this Acts 2 church. Now, as we seek to build community here, we can’t overlook God’s role, He will work to convict and to change us, to call us to action and to ministry. He will be the one that blesses our efforts and works in and through us. In the early church that was clear, God added to their numbers, God was the agent of change and growth but those things won’t happen here until we change and we decide that this is something that’s worth working towards. Look at Acts 2:44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
The building blocks are contained in this very simple and easy to read over verse. To be a community we must have togetherness and common ground. These are the essentials on our part. When those two things aren’t there, we’re just spinning our wheels. We’re ineffective and our ministry is in vain. But when we have those two things we are truly a reflection of God. We are an extension of His love and goodness and we can accomplish His purposes for us as individuals and for us a church body.
The first building block is:
A. Togetherness
Here is where I am going to start to sound a little redundant; we were not made to do this on our own. We were made for relationship and the church is God’s plan to satisfy this need in all of us. We don’t have any instances of the saints in the NT being encouraged to go it alone or to isolate themselves from the body. They are taught again and again that to accept Christ is to become part of a family, to be a part of the body of Christ. When a part is disconnected from the Body it shrivels up and dies, its only as a part of the whole that we can experience and fulfill God’s purposes in our lives.
Throughout the NT you see the word church used and, only in a few important instances is it talking about the entire Body of believers, almost without exception it is in the context of a local gathering of believers. The New Testament teaches and assumes membership in a local congregation. I have heard people argue that you can be a Christian and not be a part of a church, not be plugged into the Body. There is nowhere in Scripture that you can support this claim.
The writer of Hebrews implores the believers in 10:25
25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
There is great value in coming together, in being together. There are those benefits that we talked about last week and many more that can only be experienced together, as the church. A Christian without a church is a contradiction. We need to be together! Rick Warren puts it this way:
The Bible says we are put together, joined together, built together, members together, heirs together, fitted together, held together, and we will be caught up together and spend eternity together. You’re not on your own anymore.
The early church understood this, they did things together and their lives were intertwined and connected with each other.
I’ve always wanted to visit the Redwood forests of California. The trees are unbelievable, the height of the trees, the width of the trunks, they are truly amazing. You would expect that each of those trees would have a root system that would go extremely deep into the ground and that would spread in every direction as it moved deeper and deeper to support such an immense tree. The depth of the root has a lot to do with the size of the tree in most cases. Not for the Redwoods. Their roots are relatively shallow. What allows them to grow to the size that they do is that their roots are all connected. It’s impossible to tell where the roots of one begin and another ends. They can grow to a size and magnitude that is unmatched because they are drawing life from the trees around them. If you dissect the early church, or any healthy ministry today, you’ll find that the reason that they can support growth; the reason that they minister in ways that seem to stretch beyond their means and abilities, is because, for that group of people, their roots run together. They draw off one another and its hard to tell where the strengths and abilities of one ends and another begins. They have learned the value of togetherness, of being connected.
For some of us, we need to expand the definition of church if we are to understand the idea of community. It’s time to change the way that we think about church and our church family. Church is not this, what you see around you now. This is an extension of the church. Church is not a program or a time slot, it is not another thing to add to the schedule. Sometimes we get stuck in the thinking that church is a once a week, hour long commitment. We may enjoy it, we may love the people and the fellowship, but we categorize it along with Little League, movie night, and soccer practice as just another event. It is meant to be so much more.
In his book The Connecting Church, Author Randy Frazee writes, “The experience of authentic community is one of the purposes God intends to be fulfilled by the church. The writings of Scripture lead one to conclude that God intends the church, not to be one more bolt on the wheel of activity in our lives, but the very hub at the center of one’s life…..”
The early church made no distinction between church and life, they were not in separate categories or separate compartments, they were one in the same. Look at these facts that Acts tells us about the togetherness of this group:
First, we see when they met:
1) When
When did they meet, when did they come together? Look at verse 46: Every day. They became a community through time spent together. They had contact with each other, with the Body each and every day. We cannot become a community if we are only willing to commit to an hour a week.
2) Where
Now I find this interesting. Where did the believers meet? Well, the first place is obvious. They developed togetherness by meeting (there is verse 46) in the temple courts. They went to church each day. That was a common place where they all came together as a group, as a family. Do not underestimate the importance of the services that we share together. God can do so much in our life through these times that we set aside to collectively worship and to learn together. But there was another aspect of where they came together. Read the rest of verse 46:
They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
They opened their homes to each other, they ate together. Relationships can go to a whole other level over a meal. I used to always take my teens out when I wanted to talk to them or have them over to the house and have popcorn or something. It’s easier to talk, it’s easier to connect in that kind of setting. The early church made their homes available. Now, I think that we do the eating thing fairly well together and I think that the reason so many of you have connected so quickly is because we ate together so often for awhile there. Our first two months here we must have had 7 or 8 dinners together. We were able to bond quickly. We eat well together. One thing that I don’t think that we do well is open up our homes. As we grow, we’ve got to grasp the concept that our church and our ministry extends beyond these walls. We have to begin to build and deepen relationships and that won’t happen just in this context.
I have heard several people comment that they have never been asked to anyone’s house. In a church this size, that’s a shame. Erin and I are making an effort to open up the parsonage and to begin to build deeper relationships. People here don’t seem to be used to that. Everyone that we call thinks they’re in trouble. I really want to challenge you to take this seriously. What are you doing to build relationships outside these walls? As we make some changes to our small group ministries, we’ll begin to see these deeper relationships form but it goes beyond even that. Get on the phone, call someone you don’t know well and invite their family over. Just get pizza, it doesn’t have to be fancy. Who could you have over for Sunday dinner next week? Invite other families’ kids over to play with yours and have a cup of coffee together. Those of you who have grown up kids, do you remember what its like to have littler kids and not be able to get out of the house? What would it do for your relationships and this ministry if you called up a young couple and offered to baby-sit for a few hours. These are the kind of practical things that build community. In the early church, community came from a large group setting, the church. But it also came from more intimate setting with families sitting down together. Both ways of building relationships are essential. We need to be intentional about this as we grow.
3) Why
They were together each day, they were together in the church and in their homes and now we come to the why, why did they get together?
If you go through the entire NT and look at the things the early church did together and accomplished together, it’s an impressive list.
They met together, they prayed together, they ate together, they consulted and advised one another, they planned together, they witnessed together, they encouraged together, they shared what they had together, they strategized together, they handled conflict together, they worked together, they stood against attack together. And the list goes on. Wherever it’s possible, Christ intends for all of us to be in this together; not just for one hour on Sunday mornings—not just during “official” church meetings, but through the day to day course of life.
Togetherness is a building block to community. The second building block that we see in verse 44 is common ground.
B. Common Ground
What did the believers have in common? Everything. They were not clones, there was tremendous diversity among that group. If you read in the early part of Acts 2, the group of people that were saved and became the early church were made up of people from all over the known world. They each brought their own personalities and gifts, there was uniqueness. But at the core, at the center of it all there was common ground.
Our church is made up of very unique individuals and becoming a community doesn’t mean that we lose that. We want your unique gifts and talents. We want your unique perspectives and viewpoints, your personality quirks and your senses of humor. Each of your individuality will make us what we are as a ministry. But when we have many different types of people, spanning the generations, there is always the potential for conflict. The early church was unified but as you read through Paul’s letters in the rest of the NT you can see that conflict begins to rear it’s ugly head. It’s human nature. In a church that is not a community, conflict will tear it apart. This is where you’ll see church splits and some of that ugly stuff that many churches are known for. The church that works through that and has developed community is the one who is able to concentrate on what they have in common, instead of what their differences are. When we begin from a common ground, we can work through the problems and conflicts.
Listen to what Paul tells us that we have in common:
EPH 4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Paul goes on to say that God has gifted us all in different ways, again there is diversity in community, but he prefaces it with these verses, pointing out the things that we share. We may be different but there is one Lord, Jesus Christ is our common ground. That ought to be enough to cover any of the little differences, inconsequential differences that we may have. When we have Christ in common that means we have:
1) Common Story
I don’t care who you are, I don’t care where you’ve been, I don’t care what the specifics of your life are, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, you and I have the same story. We are both sinners saved by grace. We both deserved to die apart from God because of our sin that separated us from Him, because we fell short of His holiness. But Jesus Christ died on the cross and when we cried out to Him and asked for forgiveness, we were made new. The old was gone and in its place was a new creation. We were cleansed by the blood of Christ, marked and sealed with the Spirit, and have an eternity with the Father to look forward to. We may be different, but if you know Christ, we share a common story.
Some of you in here may have a totally different story. You don’t know Jesus as your Savior, you haven’t asked Him to forgive those times in your life when you’ve messed up. It’s not to late to change the end of the story, it’s like one of those choose your own adventure books. If you choose to accept the free gift of life and salvation that God offers through Christ then your adventure is just beginning. The Bible says that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you haven’t done that, you can. If you’ve already cried out to Him then we share a common story.
2) Common Calling
We also share a common calling. When God enters in, we are called to put off the old and put on the new. We are called to holiness and obedience. We are called to begin that process of looking less like the world and more like Jesus. Knowing that we are all called to the same thing, that we share that common calling to glorify God in our lives, that helps us to be accountable to one another. It gives us that support that we talked about last week. We are all called to know Christ in our lives and to make him known in the lives of others.
3) Common Goal
Finally, if we have Christ in common, we will have a common goal. We will have our eyes on the building up of the kingdom of God. This is where a lot of churches get sidetracked. They get caught up in methods and styles and programs and in disagreeing and fighting over just how to build God’s kingdom, they never actually accomplish anything significant towards that goal. God is less interested in the methods than he is in the hearts of the people and in the changes taking place on the inside. We could have the best programs, we could have the best music and only sing songs that pass a rigorous screening process and are guaranteed to please everyone and if we are not reaching people with the gospel and seeing lives changed then we are wasting our time. We need to focus more on the common goal and be willing to accept some things that might not be our first choice. As we grow and as we follow the vision that God has given us, not everyone will agree with everything that we do, not everyone will understand everything that we do. We may sing some songs that you don’t like. You may not be a fan of small groups or some other program that we try, but please don’t give in to the temptation to complain or gossip openly. Come and talk with me if there are issues and we’ll try to work them out. I have heard from some who have heard from others that have complained about the cost of the gym or the music, or the hiring of an associate. All of these decisions have been prayed through and we are following where we feel that God is leading. There are few things that can destroy community and unity in a church like complaining. I am not saying that you have to like everything but I am asking you to understand that we have a common goal and to weigh everything that we do against that goal rather than personal preference or opinion. We can’t please everyone but we’re not trying to. We’re trying only to please One, God. We will develop community in this place when we can all clearly see that we are moving towards one goal together. We will see the Kingdom of God grow and expand in Corning, NY.
We are all different and yet with Christ as our Savior we have everything in common. We have common ground and a bond like none other to be found in this world. We are a family and as we build a ministry here that captures the reality of the early church community, we have to build on those two building blocks that we see in Acts 2:44. We have to understand that it takes togetherness. We have to move our idea of church out of this building and begin to let our lives connect with the people that are seated here this morning. This body, with Jesus as the head should become the hub and the center of our lives rather than just another spoke in the wheel. We also have to recognize those things that we have in common. The fact that we share a common story, a common calling, and a common goal. We have to be very intentional about keeping Satan from distracting us from what God has called us to be and what God has called us to do. If we want to grow taller and wider and stronger than our roots need to go deep down into God, we have to desire Him and to know Him more. But our roots also need to spread out and connect with the roots of others like those redwoods, they achieve what know other tree can because they stand together. Let’s put roots down as we grow in God and let’s spread those roots out wide as we grow with each other into a community, into a family.
