When Ken Wytzma, pastor of Antioch Church in Bend, Oregon, asked me to teach on the subject of faith, I kew exactly what I wanted to talk about: The Role of Faith in Community.
Here is the sermon:
The Role of Faith In Community
Here are the Bullet Points:
Christian, you were not reborn to live alone and find your own lonely way through life. God gave you a community to love you with protective love. But you must have the faith it takes to receive the blessings of community.
If you think that the church is there to serve your needs, think again. The church is there to stimulate you to the love and good works Jesus had in mind when he saved you by his grace. To live without community is to live without one of the primary resources God had provided for you in Christ.
Church hopper, stop hopping and start engaging with a community of faith that will protect you from yourself by telling you the truth about yourself.
The church should be a safe place, but it was never meant to be a soft place. Who else is going to tell you the truth about yourself if not your Christian friends and the spiritual leaders of your faith community?
The time is going to come when the message of the community is going to be something you do not want to hear. When that happens that’s a God-given opportunity to either grow toward your destiny in Christ or to return to your so-called successful, satisfied, medicated and isolated mythology.
The joy of intimacy with Christ and one another in community eclipses the pain of the messiness of authentic community.
Don’t let your fear of the pain of what you’re trying to avoid about church keep you from the joy of what God wants you to experience in church.
Just one question (I may not be coherent this time of night): Can community ever be overdone? And can it legitimately be different for different personalities?
I have been at the same church for a few years; at the beginning it was wonderful and amazing, and God did some real healing in me through it. However, now my husband and I have been in 2 shepherding groups that have ended up closing, and it’s been very difficult for us to make and maintain connections. What makes me even more hesitant, perhaps (and we’re looking elsewhere for multiple reasons) is that I find that the amount of energy exerted–maybe EXPECTED–is exhausting. I know someone whose shepherding group meets approx. every other week. On “off” weeks, there’s a men’s night and a women’s night (I think this is typical for many groups), so people can share their hearts with those of the same sex or whatever. I don’t like that every other week…it would be 2 separate nights that my husband and I were apart. Add to that Sunday night church plus whatever else is in your schedule (maybe a night of late work), and I just think that is too much. On top of this, the couple heading up this particular group both participated in a “Redemption” group, meeting on another night, and one or both were helping with children’s church. (Oh, and she is expecting and planning to continue full-time work.) I’m exhausted just THINKING about that! But I don’t know that I can say that that is just TOO MUCH.
Oh, and they also apparently always sit with their shepherding group at church; she was with shepherding group women at a church women’s event…it’s like there’s literally no room for anyone else in their lives, other than shepherding group members…
What about nights to just be home with your family? For a date night? To connect with 1-2 friends rather than a dozen? I was discouraged because I tried to speak to this person about my individual personality and what I found exhausting (all that on top of my husband’s class, etc.), and she essentially interrupted me with “Well, hopefully that’ll be over soon!!” And, what, we’ll rush to fill every empty night when it is??
(I am writing partly out of hurt from being excluded by this person. But the point is, sometimes the expectations are too much for me. And sometimes it’s hurtful being rejected and left out just because I am not a part of that group.)
Hi Katie–Christians are notorious for carrying anything too far. My view on this is that typically our churches don’t go deep enough in relationships and that’s a bigger problem than Christians who over-relate. We try to keep our groups somewhat purposeful in serving Christ. What I mean is that we’re gathering not only to become a support for one another personally, but also to encourage one another as we serve Christ outside of the group. If I were you, I would just let these people have their group and leave that to God and ask Him to put you into a group that would work for you. Blessings, and thanks for the comment.