Saturday, June 19, 2004
A NEW GROUP FORMING IN MY CHURCH
I don’t know how to begin this “Post”. I’m not sure I even know how to say what I want to communicate. I have wanted to tell about a new group forming within my church, Countryside Christian Fellowship. But I also want to communicate about more than just another “group” forming within an already existing group. This new group is about “community”. I think every group ought to be about community, at least to some extent.
As I was contemplating this Post, one of my friends wrote some very relevant truths about community in his latest journal entry. I don’t have his permission to do this, but I don’t think he’ll object to being quoted!
“A healthy church is a community. If a person wants to get into church, and an individual connects them to the church, they won’t feel satisfied in that church if there’s no sense of community. If the body in a given area isn’t healthy, if there isn’t a fullness of Christ’s image present in the congregation, it will be clear to the visitor. If they are a true seeker, they will probably hop from church to church until they can find a church where they imagine the image of Christ is most present.”
What he writes is so true. For many years I have witnessed people “church hopping” for the exact reason my friend states in his journal. And this will continue to happen until the church realizes the importance of community.
We think and talk a lot about community at Countryside. Hopefully we are doing more than just talking about it. I observe that Countryside practices community far more than most churches I have known. And people continue to be attracted to Countryside. And we have joy, peace, harmony and unity even though we have diversity within the Body of Believers at Countryside. But we have unity in Christ.
My friend continues in his journal:
“Community is the whole purpose of the Church. When I read the New Testament, I don’t find a bunch of individual followers of Jesus just trying to make individual followers of Jesus. Instead, I find Paul and Jesus establishing communities of people, communities that can reflect Jesus’ own character. These people don’t simply preach to individuals; they convert people and immediately make them a part of a group, if a group is somehow present. It’s not like we can run around being disconnected Christians. It’s just not healthy to divorce yourself from the Body. Why would Christ’s Body want parts of itself to be disconnected?”
I say, “Amen! Right on, my friend!”
Our world and certainly many of our Western churches have lost (if they ever had it) a sense of community that is important to the church’s well being.
So what? Why am I writing this? Within our Community of Believers at Countryside Christian Fellowship we have a special group of people who, until now, have been only “fragments” within the Body. They have not been connected in their own Community. This group could be called Young Adults. A young adult has been defined as someone between the ages of 18 and 35, single or married, with or without children, a college student or a working professional.
I mean they are part of the Body of Believers and they are an integral, active part of the fellowship of Countryside. But as far as the church or congregation is concerned, they have no sense of community, of being connected together at Countryside. We believe that it is vital to help young adults feel connected at CCF. After all, young adults have specific needs and interests that can be fulfilled by spending time with God and people of their own age; people who are experiencing similar things in life.
This group had a successful beginning last Sunday. There were 11 present for their first “official” meeting. This group is quickly getting organized and already has had their first group activity.
The group will continue to meet Sunday mornings following the worship service for study, fellowship and planning future activities and service opportunities to insure developing community within the group.
We have hopes this will occur. We have some excellent gifted people within the age group who are serving as facilitators for this group. Our prayers to God are that this group can serve as a model for the entire church of a true Christian Community. We’ll see. I’ll try to let you know how it turns out. But it takes time and effort to develop community.
Jim
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