Real community

Reading Bible study magazine this quarter and I came across an article by Karen Jones on a Christian blogger Tim Challies. It was a good read. Something that jumped out at me in the article is his view on the local church and the real community that it offers:

“The heart of the christian community starts in the church. It places a priority on human contact and fellowship. If I want to grow as a christian, I need people to help me do that. I am not capable of living the christian life on my own as successfully as I could in community”

This is so true, we need people around us. In fact a vast amount of society cries out for community. Whether it be the bike club, golf club, pub, club and the list goes on. We all crave for community, we were built that way. In Genesis the bible says that after making Adam God said that it was not good for man to be alone. We just simply are not meant to do life on our own.

Church is about community in so many different ways, not just a group of Christians meeting together, which is called fellowship, but also being in the community around us. Helping those around us. Finding those not in community, the lonely, the outcasts the left behind by society and drawing them into community.

Let’s be the community that we are called to be and let’s be in the community.

So what makes our community different to the rest? The answer to that may sound smile to some but to Christians it’s the most precious of things. Christ is who makes our community different. You see we believe that Jesus is alive and well. We believe that he is in heaven with God the Father. And he is represented in our community by his Holy Spirit. Before Jesus left us he said he was sending a helper and that is the Holy Spirit.

A community of people filled with the Holy Spirit is the difference and well worth a look.