STARTING A LIFEdevelopment COMMUNITY
WHILE WE DO HAVE OUR STRUGGLES AND FIGHTS, THE FACT THAT
WE KEEP TRYING AND DO FIND GENUINE BELONGING AND COMMUNITY
IS EVIDENCE OF GOD'S INVOLVEMENT.
You've seen the challenge and excitement of being a missionary where you are. What if you had a whole church backing you? What if different gifts could complement each other – if the hospitality people made visitors welcome, if teachers taught intelligently and passionately, if others gave kind service and help and smooth administration. The Bible shows this is God's dream for His church.
WHY COMMUNITY?
One of Christ's last prayers was for his disciples to have community: 'I pray…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me' (John 17:20-24).
Notice he is praying that they will be 'one' – in purpose, in friendship, in intimacy. He wants their unity to be spiritual, as deep as it gets. And when you think who He is Jesus praying for – Thomas the brooding intellectual, Peter the motor-mouth, aggressive John, Simon the former terrorist Zealot, Matthew the sell-out tax collector – you realise He was asking for a miracle. These people had to forgive each other and change their attitudes in a way that almost never happens. That is why he talks about this unity being a miracle that proves God is there – it couldn't happen through mere human means.
It's the same today. Churches shouldn't work! We have such differences in social class, race, education levels, interests and politics. Humanly, we shouldn't get on! While we do have our struggles and fights, the fact that we keep trying and do find genuine belonging and community is evidence of God's involvement. Obviously there are practical reasons for working together. But there is also powerful evidence for God: take a professional person to a church where they can meet street kids, and see them being cared for and included in that church, and you have something very impressive. Postmodern people quietly go, 'Wow!'
