Community

Something that has been weighing heavy on my heart lately is the concept of community.  No, not that wonderful television show about Community College Study Groups.  I'm talking about real fellowship with believers of Christ. How often do you spend time with your Christian brothers & sisters worshiping, praying, or discussing God's word?  How often do we set aside our hang out time to get serious and talk about what God is doing in our lives?  When nonbelievers look at us, what are they seeing?

Last Sunday, I went to church at The Grove Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  If you are currently without a church, and you're looking for a place full of believers who are sold out for God.  The Grove is for you.  After a really good set of worship, the pastor got up and started teaching.  He had been teaching out of Nehemiah and finished Chapter Six the week before.  At the end of Chapter Six, Nehemiah and his people finished building their wall.  The massive project was completed in 52 days, and the people were relieved to have it finished.  It is absolutely incredible how God used Nehemiah to unite a group of people to complete such an enormous task, but I think the more important part is what happened next.

In Chapter seven, we read that Nehemiah gathered all of the people together and brought them inside the city walls. The beginning of chapter eight says that Nehemiah had Ezra read the law to the people who gathered together every morning from sun-up to midday to listen.  When he began reading, the people were overwhelmed and began to worship the Lord together because it had been so long since they had heard God's word spoken to them.  Nehemiah understood the importance of the people's spiritual needs, and placed them above other daily activities.  This passage of scripture is a great example of how people are greater than projects, and is a great reminder of how important it is for us to be in community with fellow believers so that we can experience the joy of others as they receive great and new revelations from God.  In this case, just the simplicity of reading God's words to His people was enough to reduce the crowds to tears of joy as they worshiped God together.

In the end, Nehemiah says, "Do not mourn or weep - for all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law - Go eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared" (Neh. 8:9-10).  They threw a party! Spirituality and studying the word don't have to only be somber and serious things; in fact, quite the opposite.  Nehemiah knew this and exhibited a wonderful model of how we can have seriousness in a time of celebration.  We should be celebrating with each other over the great things God is doing in our lives.  However, in order to have celebration, we need to have community & fellowship with each other first.

Something to think about:

When you go to church, are you just alone in a large group? Your immediate answer will most likely be no, but are you really being honest with yourself?  Even if you ride to church with someone else, or sit with a group of your best friends, are you there by yourself? Do you feel like you're connected?  Or are you trying to walk out your spiritual life on your own?  The fact of the matter is we cannot do this on our own.  We need to have people in our lives. . .We need community.  We need to get serious about our faith and about God's word, and we need to start sharing our lives with one another so we can, in turn, share our lives with the world.  The world is in need of hope, life, light, peace, and joy.  We can be those things to the world, but we need to be united with each other first.

-Matt