QUEST FOR COMMUNITY
INTRO:
This week: Hurricane Katrina – an example of how something can kill a community/threaten to wipe out a community.
Last week: Our mission is to grow fruitful followers of Jesus Christ. We are to be fruit and produce fruit.
Today’s question: what is the key element to fulfilling our mission? What is the most important thing we need in order to be fruit and produce fruit?
• Better facilities?
• Better/more staff?
• More exciting/attractive programs?
• More gifted/skilled people?
• More financial resources?
None of those are it. There is something else that is absolutely key, essential, fundamental to you and I being who God wants us to be and doing what God wants us to do. Without this key, we are faced with mission impossible. With this key, we face mission possible. Today we will discover what it is. And we will discover both what creates and what kills this essential aspect of our mission.
So, what is this key, crucial, essential element? The thing we can’t succeed without? It’s Community. Authentic, biblical community makes our mission possible.
I. Real Community is essential to our mission
A. Community defined
What is community? Its sort of a buzzword in our society right now. We use the word to describe a variety of things: A community bank. A community center. An online community. Sometimes it just refers to a place we live, the “community” we live in. Let’s look a three Scriptures that help us both understand what community is and why it is so important. We will see three different authors describe community in three different ways. Turn with me first to Hebrews 10:24-25.
Did you notice how the author of Hebrews stresses the need for Christians to meet together? This is very strong, direct encouragement. In these two verses he highlights two important aspects of community: meeting together and helping one another. We are to spur and encourage one another. Community always involves some form of meeting, or being together. But it is always meeting or being together with a purpose: here that purpose is to spur one another on and to encourage one another. Community involves being involved with other believers with the point of helping them live out the Christian life.
Now turn to 1 Corinthians 12:12-13. This is Paul writing. He describes Christians as a body – all connected. Notice what he goes on to say about the individual parts of the body as I read 1 Corinthians 12:14-20. His point is that every part of the body is different, but plays a vital role in the functioning of the body. This is an important aspect of community. First of all, since we are connected like a body, we need to function together; that’s community. Secondly, community involves each individual being valued for who they are, and being allowed to play their God-designed role. Community exists when members of the community all contribute their part to the working of the whole. Just being together isn’t enough.
Now turn to John 15:9-13. We looked at this passage last week. Here Jesus charges his followers with loving one another deeply. Community involves a group of people bound together by love.
Community is believers being together to help one another live the Christian life, allowing everyone to play a meaningful role, and relating to one another with love. These are key things that must exist for God’s mission – our mission – to succeed. Community. You gotta have it.
B. Community can be difficult
The thing about real community is that it isn’t automatic. It doesn’t just happen. You can’t just throw people together and have ‘instant community.’ Just showing up at church doesn’t guarantee you will experience community. Joining a small group doesn’t always do it either. I have been in small groups that have provided the most powerful examples of community, and I have been in groups that have had no community whatsoever. We’re good at getting together, but we don’t always have to heart or the courage to ‘spur one another on.’ We don’t always value everyone and don’t always let them play their role. And we certainly don’t always relate to one another in love. That’s why community can be difficult.
TRANS.: So, what creates community? How can we experience greater levels of community and see greater things occur for the glory of God? This morning I want to show you 3 things that create community. 3 conditions that foster real community. But to understand them, we will have to also explore the 3 enemies of community, the 3 things that kill real community. Let’s take a look at the first community killer. [show clip of opening scene from Antz]
A. Individualism kills community
That’s a funny scene. But it represents a way of thinking that dominates our culture: Individualism. Z echoes the angst of many people today: “What about my needs?” We all want to be more than just a number, we all want to be recognized as individuals, but in our culture this goes beyond basic recognition of our individual dignity and uniqueness. Individualism elevates the individual above everything else. We pursue our own desires and goals above everyone else’s, and rarely think about what is best for a group. We look out for number one.
The result of this is that when we meet together, we meet as a collection of individuals focused on our own wants and needs, not as a community focused around common interests. “What about my needs?” is our battle cry. We are the basketball team where each player wants to build his own stats, play his own game, and not work as a team toward common goals. This leads us to the antidote to individualism.
B. Common purposes create community
Community is fostered when a group of people is united around a common purpose. At the end of Antz, Z ends up serving and sacrificing for the community he belongs to. In healthy places of community, the individual is valued, but the community values something larger than the individual. For the Christian community, this ‘something’ is Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Philippians 3:7-11. Christ is preeminent in our lives. And in a very countercultural way, our faith invites us to think of others more than we think of ourselves. Philippians 2:3-4. When we take up this invitation, we find community. Suddenly, we are no longer so concerned about ourselves that we can’t see the collective good. And when we all look to Christ and his mission as the most important thing, we find ourselves united in a common cause. We find community. As football season opens, every coach can be heard saying a version of the same thing: If we can get everyone to subjugate their own interests for the team’s goals and interests, we’ll be fine. Maybe you have had to privilege of being on a team like that and experienced the effectiveness of it.
One of the reasons churches fail to experience true community and fails to advance the cause of Christ is that its members are not united around a common purpose. We don’t have a common understanding of our mission, of our faith, of the values, practices, and virtues that we are to be committed to. If you asked fifty people in this church what you absolutely have to believe in order to be a Christian, you’d probably get 50 different answers. If you asked 20 people what the mission of the church is, you’d get at least 10 different answers. We’re out to change that. We think the Scriptures offer a basic set of beliefs, practices, values and virtues that are completely true and totally essential to living a fruitful Christian life. There is plenty of room for differences on the nonessential issues, but we want to be united on the essentials.
This is the purpose of the Christian Life profile and the 30 Core Competencies it lists. This is why we will be using this tool individually and focusing on its themes corporately in our worship services and Adult Community Groups.
II. COMMON PURPOSES CREATE COMMUNITY
Community thrives when people are united around common purposes. Individualism kills community.
Common purposes create community. What else creates community? To discover that, let’s take a peak at what else kills community.
A. Isolation kills community
The second enemy of community is isolation. One of the remarkably noticeable things about our society is our growing isolation. We live isolated lives. This is reflected in the make up of our communities. Before about the 1950’s, our communities were constructed in a fashion where you could walk everywhere you need to go – to the store, to school, etc. Once everybody had automobiles, our communities got more spread out – now we drive everywhere. The result is we hardly ever come in contact with other people – we’re closed in our automobiles. When we get home, we pull into our garages, push a button to put down the door, and retreat into our homes. No one drops by, no one is out walking; you can be surrounded by people all day but never actually talk to one. Our banks are automated, I get my gas without even talking to an attendant. We’re progressively more isolated. How many of your neighbors do you actually know? Compare that to the number of neighbors that your parents knew when you were a kid…
The other thing that fuels our isolation is our busyness. The drastic demands on our time saps our energy. The truth is, we don’t have the time or energy to talk with people even if we did encounter them. We’d be stressed out, not relieved, if someone stopped by unannounced – it would mess up our schedules. On Friday night a friend called at about 6:30, on the spur of the moment, to see if our family wanted to join theirs at the drive-in. My first reaction was, “I can’t do that, I have too much to do.” My first response was to stay home and be isolated. We did go, and had a great time. Our kids are so busy, and we are so busy attending to them, that the end result is isolation. It’s ironic that the busier we have become, the lonelier we have become.
How do we fight isolation and experience community?
B. Common places create community
Community is fostered by proximity, by sharing space. We cannot remain separate and experience community. Since our culture, our neighborhoods, our lifestyles work against community, we must find ways to come together in community. True human community requires certain elements, like spontaneity. The ability to see someone, talk with someone on a whim. Availability is important as well. Community is fostered by caring and helping folks when they need it. There has to be a level of availability – you have to be available when someone needs something. Frequency is another key component. Most small group ministries I have been a part of have struggled over the issue of frequency – how often should we meet? Once a week, or twice a month? Does frequency affect community? Sure it does. Look with me at Acts 2:42-47. This is a description of one fantastic Christian community – the very first group of believers.
Some pretty amazing things happened in their midst. Did you notice how often they met? Every day. They were constantly together. The problem we have is that we want to meet 1/7th or 1/14th of the time they did but expect 100% of the result. The more you are together, the more you foster community. I’m not suggesting that your home group start having meetings every day. But I am suggesting that your group start having contact every day. To experience community, we have to get beyond the idea of just having meetings. The most important things that happen in a small group community often happen outside of meetings. The spontaneous things that come up, the fun things, helping one another out in a bind. And you have to eat together. Common meals have always been a big part of community.
The only way I know to help accomplish this has to do with proximity. You have to live close to those you want to have community with. Its much easier to be spontaneous, available, and frequent with folks across the street than folks across town, right?
This is precisely why we are starting to emphasize geographically organized community. Our new adult community groups and ultimately our home groups will be organized geographically. We’ve broken our community into 6 distinct zones, defined by the six high schools in our area. As you begin this journey of living in community, we want to make it easy for you. We hope to help you start meeting people who live relatively close to you. To get started, we’ve combined some of our zones, so there are four zones to begin with. The first step is to join the ACG that corresponds to where you live. The second step is to join a home group made up of people who attend that ACG, who live near you. The third step will be to take what you are learning and experiencing about community and begin to make relationships in your own neighborhood. Community development must be intentional.
Now, if you already have deep relationships and experience real community with folks outside your area, that’s great. We are not asking you to sacrifice existing community for our new structure. But we do want you to consider the best way to find real community.
III. Common places create community
Community is fostered when we live in community with those in proximity to us.
Trans.: What else creates community? Again, we must first recognize an enemy of community.
A. Consumerism kills community
We are a nation of consumers. Of course, we must consume to live. But many of us have transcended that and we now live to consume. We buy things in astonishing quantities in a never-ending effort to meet our real or perceived needs. Our solution to every thing involves “more.” How does this work against community? For one, our rabid pursuit of the good life leaves us without a moments spare time or any margin at all. We work like dogs to pay off the stuff we already have. Sometimes the ‘stuff’ itself works against community. Most evenings I take my dog out for a walk around the neighborhood. Most night I don’t see another living soul. But what I do see at house after house is the glow of giant televisions slowly isolating their owners to death. Consumerism also makes us more independent, in a bad way. Last week, my lawn mower broke. I was faced with two options: Take it to the shop to get it fixed, or ask the guy across the street, who has the exact same mower, to help me fix it. Which did I choose? See, we’d rather buy something new than ask for help (which might build a relationship) or borrow what we don’t have. We’d rather consume.
More significantly, we begin to value things more than people, or even God. Instead of loving people and using things, we love things and use people. The result? A definite lack of community. What’s the solution?
B. Common possessions create community
Turn with me to Acts 4:32-37. This is another glowing description of the early believers. Again, notice the good things going on in their midst. The heart of this passage contains an essential element of authentic community:
Acts 4:32.
Now, they didn’t just pool their resources, but they were all willing to share what they had to help others and to advance the cause of Christ. Do you think this had an impact on their level of community?
Community, real community, requires us sharing what we have with the community, for the common good. I’m not just talking about money or material possessions. God also wants us to use our time and our gifts and abilities to further his cause. A group experiences deep community when it shares what is has been given by God.
They key idea here is one of healthy interdependence – God wants us to be appropriately interdependent. We need each other. But when we structure our lives in opposition to this, we fail to find community.
Imagine a small group where the members committed to share what they had to accomplish Christ’s mission. Imagine a group that used the gifts, talents and resources in the group to reach out to their friends and neighbors. Or show compassion to the elderly. Or participate in world missions. Think they would experience community?
III. Common possessions create community
Community is fostered when people share what God has given them, their time, resources, and talents, to live out the life of Christ.
CONCL:
