joy and community

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete (1 John 1:3-4).

God Himself lives in perfect community in the Trinity. To be drawn “into Christ” is to begin to understand the kind of community that is in His nature. As the Father loves the Son, and the Holy Spirit reveals that love, the experience of God’s love is realized more fully as we relate to one another. Jesus said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:34). Could it be that the two are related? Jesus said, “They will know you are my disciples by the way you love one another (John 13:35).” John put it this way:

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8).

To nurture an “in Christ” lifestyle, the church must create multiple environments, not just for witness, but for “withness.” Not just for discipleship, but for fellowship. This is why our church is putting a lot of time, resources and energy into a structure of Sunday morning Bible study connection classes and home community groups that meet Sunday nights and throughout the week. We recognize that our product is changed lives and that life change happens best in small groups. We are creating multiple discipling and fellowshipping environments. Our goal is that every member and attender will be in a small group of some type.

It is in the small group that we fellowship and do the hard work of discipleship with others, and it is in those groups that we do community missions together. We are, in other words, swept up together in the movement of the Holy Spirit, accomplishing the work and calling of the Father, modeling the life of the Son. We are joining God in His perfect community and inviting others to join with us. This is how our joy is made complete and our mission accomplished.