When God calls His community together, He typically does so for some very specific purposes. He calls us together to be nurtured and fed with His word of forgiveness and hope. He calls us together to be bonded together as His people through His promise that He extended in our baptism. He unites us as one body in Christ when He feeds us with the body and blood of Jesus, which was broken and shed for our forgiveness. God calls us together for some very specific reasons.
And as God calls us together, He also gives us the great gift of our friendships with each other. He created us to be in community with one another, and there are very few places of worship where God's people don't share friendships with each other. God delights in our connections with each other, and enjoys when they are deep, caring, loving connections.
But what happens if God's people suddenly were to start making it more about their friendships than about the God who calls them together? What if we were to start coming together and talking more about the weather, or our latest vacation or fishing trip, rather than the faith and Savior that we have in common? It's not that these are inappropriate to talk about when God's people come together, but they aren't the main reason we come together. We are called together to be in Christ.
Being a community that connects with each other is great. It's even greater when we intentionally nurture the connections that we have in Christ. He is the core and center of the reason we come together. God has done remarkable things for us in Christ Jesus, forgiving our sin and uniting us into one household of God, with Jesus Himself at our head. While every single one of our conversations together may not focus solely on Him, we lose much when our conversations don't include Him as we come together.
What are one or two simple ways that you can connect with your Christian community and bring Christ into it even more? This coming weekend, as most of us gather together in our Christian communities for worship, bring Christ into one or two of your conversations in ways that you haven't typically done. Encourage others to do the same. After all, that is a rather significant part of what it means to be a connecting community in Christ.
And as God calls us together, He also gives us the great gift of our friendships with each other. He created us to be in community with one another, and there are very few places of worship where God's people don't share friendships with each other. God delights in our connections with each other, and enjoys when they are deep, caring, loving connections.
But what happens if God's people suddenly were to start making it more about their friendships than about the God who calls them together? What if we were to start coming together and talking more about the weather, or our latest vacation or fishing trip, rather than the faith and Savior that we have in common? It's not that these are inappropriate to talk about when God's people come together, but they aren't the main reason we come together. We are called together to be in Christ.
Being a community that connects with each other is great. It's even greater when we intentionally nurture the connections that we have in Christ. He is the core and center of the reason we come together. God has done remarkable things for us in Christ Jesus, forgiving our sin and uniting us into one household of God, with Jesus Himself at our head. While every single one of our conversations together may not focus solely on Him, we lose much when our conversations don't include Him as we come together.
What are one or two simple ways that you can connect with your Christian community and bring Christ into it even more? This coming weekend, as most of us gather together in our Christian communities for worship, bring Christ into one or two of your conversations in ways that you haven't typically done. Encourage others to do the same. After all, that is a rather significant part of what it means to be a connecting community in Christ.
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