The Beauty of Christian Community

When something becomes familiar it can be easy to take for granted. When something becomes familiar it can seem to lose it's beauty.

I remember the day I moved to Memphis, it was on my 25th birthday. I wanted so badly to connect with others in Christ and to find true Christian community. I couldn't find it. It was so easy to find in college but once I was out of college it felt so hard to find. But out of that burden and desire the Young Adult Community at Hope Church was birthed. 

So I've been doing this job for 4 years now. And community has become familiar to me. The thing I used to long for, I can easily take for granted now.

But this week God has given me a new found appreciation for community. I have been able to step back and re-see, re-find and re-appreciate the value and beauty of Christian community.

Everyone wants to connect. Everyone wants to be known. Everyone wants to feel like they belong to something. That is the common denominator of everyone who walks through our doors. Everyone is in a different place spiritually and might be looking for different things in a church. But the desire to connect with others is the same.

When new people walk through those doors each week I just can't help but think about the potential that is before them to meet people and build relationships and friendships that may grow their faith and challenge them to a deeper desire to know Christ. I see potential for them to follow Jesus in new ways and to be used for his kingdom. I see potential for changed lives that will change lives. I see new opportunities to obey Jesus' greatest command: to love God and love others. I see opportunities to follow Jesus' last command: to go into all the world and make disciples. When people walk in the doors and encounter Jesus (through others, through worship, through teaching), I feel like I get to see God's kingdom come on earth.

I love getting to be a part of something like that. I LOVE connecting people to people and people to Christ. 

Over the past 4 years I've gotten to watch countless friendships and groups of friends develop. I've gotten to watch small groups form that study and grow in God's Word together. And I've gotten to see God bring relationships together where people are pushing each other towards Christ, learning to forgive, learning to love selflessly and learning to look past themselves. Some of those relationships will last the rest of their lives.

Maybe the beauty of what can happen in Christian community is that we get to taste what Jesus had in mind for us when he said, "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." John 10:10

Maybe the beauty of what can happen in Christian community is that we get to be a part of the fruition of Jesus' prayers before he went to the cross, when he prayed, "that they may be one as we are one - I in them and you in me - so they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John 17:22-23

And... it's just fun!