God calls His community together, out of darkness, and into His marvelous light. God connects His community together with one another, as we share a common Savior and a common faith. And that's not the end of the story by any means.
God doesn't create His community of faith and then separate it from the world around it. If He did, He might as well take us to be with Him forever once we become a Christian. But God continues to leave us in this world. He has us be part of the larger community, of all humankind that He has created. We cannot help but be part of the larger community.
So part of our life as God's community is connecting with the community around us. However, we don't merely interact with them, as though nothing made us different from them. Sure, many of our interactions with them will be concerned with daily needs and the like. But God also sends His community out to bring Christ into the community.
That's perhaps the fullest explanation I can give for our new catchphrase. We are the means by which God connects with community. As we go forth as God's people, we connect community and Christ. God continues to speak through His Word, and the ones who carry that Word are His very own people. As we go forth, God intends for us to connect with our community, and in that connection, to bring Christ to them.
Over the centuries, God's people have had untold numbers of interactions with their communities. The communities to which God sends His people have been blessed as God's people have sought ways to bring Christ into the conversations and activities of the community. While it's true that God could use some other means of bringing them into Christ if He so chose, what the Bible reveals to us is that God has chosen to work through the disciples of Jesus, those who follow Him, those who have had their sin forgiven and are then sent, just as Jesus was sent. God didn't bring us out of the world when we became Christian, but instead, sent us back into the world with the word of hope and forgiveness on our lips and in our lives.
As we think about the various ministries and connections we have with the community around us, how can we grow in bringing Christ into those connections? How can we not just assume that it will happen, but actively work to ensure that it happens? Our salvation isn't found in our efforts or abilities to do this, but that of our neighbor in our community might find that his or her salvation is directly related to our efforts to connect our community and Christ.
God doesn't create His community of faith and then separate it from the world around it. If He did, He might as well take us to be with Him forever once we become a Christian. But God continues to leave us in this world. He has us be part of the larger community, of all humankind that He has created. We cannot help but be part of the larger community.
So part of our life as God's community is connecting with the community around us. However, we don't merely interact with them, as though nothing made us different from them. Sure, many of our interactions with them will be concerned with daily needs and the like. But God also sends His community out to bring Christ into the community.
That's perhaps the fullest explanation I can give for our new catchphrase. We are the means by which God connects with community. As we go forth as God's people, we connect community and Christ. God continues to speak through His Word, and the ones who carry that Word are His very own people. As we go forth, God intends for us to connect with our community, and in that connection, to bring Christ to them.
Over the centuries, God's people have had untold numbers of interactions with their communities. The communities to which God sends His people have been blessed as God's people have sought ways to bring Christ into the conversations and activities of the community. While it's true that God could use some other means of bringing them into Christ if He so chose, what the Bible reveals to us is that God has chosen to work through the disciples of Jesus, those who follow Him, those who have had their sin forgiven and are then sent, just as Jesus was sent. God didn't bring us out of the world when we became Christian, but instead, sent us back into the world with the word of hope and forgiveness on our lips and in our lives.
As we think about the various ministries and connections we have with the community around us, how can we grow in bringing Christ into those connections? How can we not just assume that it will happen, but actively work to ensure that it happens? Our salvation isn't found in our efforts or abilities to do this, but that of our neighbor in our community might find that his or her salvation is directly related to our efforts to connect our community and Christ.
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