February 2nd, 2023
Community in the Christian circles has become a bit of a buzzword. It gets spoken of often, to the point where we can let it go in one ear and out the other, but, it is something that I believe we all want. A community is essentially like a village, a family. A place or group of people you can rely on and who can rely on you.
Many of us have this, and yet many of us are searching for fellowship of close believers. In order to gain and maintain community, it takes hard work, toilsome work sometimes with blood, sweat and tears. We have become lazy within our communities, myself included. We want others to do the work for us, we want all relationships and any work we have to do to be minimal and easy.
The thing is though, when we genuinely want something bad enough, we will be motivated enough to do the work no matter what.
Case in point: I started college for the first time sixteen years after graduating high school. I hated school as a teenager and was quite nervous to start over. I wondered if I would still hate it even though I was pursuing a degree all these years later that I know I want. What I have found is that because I have a goal and passion for what the outcome of enduring general education classes, learning new studies and things about the human brain and how we think will be, I am willing to do the hard work needed. I’ve had to sacrifice my weekends, some evenings, free time to watch my shows so that I can make the deadlines, to put in the time and to do good work.
When we genuinely want something bad enough, we will be motivated enough to do the work no matter what. When we genuinely want community, we will do the hard, toilsome (oftentimes awkward) work to make friends, to be vulnerable, to speak truth, to ask forgiveness so that we can have those deeper relationships, so that we can have the people who will go through the trenches with us, so that we can have our village.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Are we overlooking the people we sit next to each week? Are we noticing the friends we already have and asking them questions that reveal their heart? Each of us has a role to play within community. Some roles may be small, some big, loud, quiet, in front, behind the scenes, long, short…you get the idea. Don’t try to do what the person next to you is doing. Comparison and competition has robbed us for too long in having good community.
I have a lot to say on this topic. To keep from repeating myself, I will end with these thoughts.
Community is a choice and we all have a responsibility for our own choices and the work we put into it.
One of the most important parts of community that I have learned, is that your focus on your own relationship with God must come first. If that is not your top priority, really, in any relationship and scenario in life, you will be left feeling wanting. When we prioritize and give time to our relationship with God, we are filled up by the Spirit, which does not leave us wanting, but instead leaves us satisfied and with the strength to give ourselves to others and to find fulfillment in community and in the gifts and purposes God has given us as His church, His bride.
We were never promised easy. We were promised God’s presence and He by His power, love, grace and mercy is how we build and remain in community.
- Jill Troyer
Many of us have this, and yet many of us are searching for fellowship of close believers. In order to gain and maintain community, it takes hard work, toilsome work sometimes with blood, sweat and tears. We have become lazy within our communities, myself included. We want others to do the work for us, we want all relationships and any work we have to do to be minimal and easy.
The thing is though, when we genuinely want something bad enough, we will be motivated enough to do the work no matter what.
Case in point: I started college for the first time sixteen years after graduating high school. I hated school as a teenager and was quite nervous to start over. I wondered if I would still hate it even though I was pursuing a degree all these years later that I know I want. What I have found is that because I have a goal and passion for what the outcome of enduring general education classes, learning new studies and things about the human brain and how we think will be, I am willing to do the hard work needed. I’ve had to sacrifice my weekends, some evenings, free time to watch my shows so that I can make the deadlines, to put in the time and to do good work.
When we genuinely want something bad enough, we will be motivated enough to do the work no matter what. When we genuinely want community, we will do the hard, toilsome (oftentimes awkward) work to make friends, to be vulnerable, to speak truth, to ask forgiveness so that we can have those deeper relationships, so that we can have the people who will go through the trenches with us, so that we can have our village.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Are we overlooking the people we sit next to each week? Are we noticing the friends we already have and asking them questions that reveal their heart? Each of us has a role to play within community. Some roles may be small, some big, loud, quiet, in front, behind the scenes, long, short…you get the idea. Don’t try to do what the person next to you is doing. Comparison and competition has robbed us for too long in having good community.
I have a lot to say on this topic. To keep from repeating myself, I will end with these thoughts.
Community is a choice and we all have a responsibility for our own choices and the work we put into it.
One of the most important parts of community that I have learned, is that your focus on your own relationship with God must come first. If that is not your top priority, really, in any relationship and scenario in life, you will be left feeling wanting. When we prioritize and give time to our relationship with God, we are filled up by the Spirit, which does not leave us wanting, but instead leaves us satisfied and with the strength to give ourselves to others and to find fulfillment in community and in the gifts and purposes God has given us as His church, His bride.
We were never promised easy. We were promised God’s presence and He by His power, love, grace and mercy is how we build and remain in community.
- Jill Troyer
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