Category: Community (Page 3 of 5)

Walking Together Toward Community: Connection

Connection

Connection to other believers.

Gospel-Centered Community (GCC): a body of committed believers, connected by a shared purpose and vision to see Jesus glorified, and who challenge each other into deeper relationship with Jesus and one another.

Gospel-Centered Missional Community (GCMC): the practical outworking of GCC, focused on cultivating disciples who make connected disciples.

I call the process for growing into community The Walk and it looks like this:

The Walk

This is the first of three posts to discuss committed actions, and their associated elements, for developing community.

In this post we will flesh out the action of Connection. The committed action of Connection can be read as:

We will connect ourselves to each other by gathering around a shared heart, purpose, and vision.

Connecting Ourselves to Each Other…

At its most basic “to connect” simply means to join or unite. In this context it does mean that, but it also carries a much deeper opportunity. Christians who intentionally commit to being connected to one another bind themselves together as one body under the headship of Jesus. They are communicating to each other, and others, their desire for unity with that group of people. This is less about a signed “covenant” or membership application and more about allowing the Holy Spirit to draw and bind their hearts to one another. In the drawing and binding of connection the practice of loving each other (John 13:34) is learned and applied. And, in obeying Jesus’ new command, a community is bound more tightly together.

Gathered before Scattered

Connection in the context of GCC is grander than simple association. We have connections to others in many aspects of our lives. We connect with people at work, other parents in our children’s class, and the barista at our favorite coffee joint. While these are important relational connections, and a topic for the post on Cultivation, they do not provide the same intimacy or authenticity as Christian community. For it to be authentic Christian community, our connection to other believers must be focused on unity in Christ. And because it is Christ who gathers us, it is important to know what we value as a community. Those things that we chose to gather around, are the elements that uphold our commitment to intentionally connect with a specific body.

We commit to gathering around:

A Shared Heart

This is the core of what draws you together as a community. Identifying the nature of your community, and why you gather, will help anchor you to Christ and each other.

A Shared Purpose

This is about your mission. Why do you exist as a community? Of course the foundation for your existence as a community is Jesus, but why else? It is important to define how Jesus’ mission translates, in a practical sense, to your community.

A Shared Vision

This is about where you are going as a community. When developing vision ask questions like: What does growth look like? How will you multiply? What would a corporate gathering be like?

These elements will not only help a community uphold their commitment to each other, but will also move them forward into the commitment of challenging each other.

How is this Biblical

As mentioned in the last post, the primary passage of scripture for this process is Acts 2:42-47. This entire passage is replete with the followers of Jesus committing to remain connected to each other. The passage begins with verse 42 declaring, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship” (emphasis added). This passage reveals their commitment to continual communion with one another. Their communion was grander than what is common to our current culture. For them, communion was deeply intimate and reveals their affection, need for and enjoyment of each other.

But verse 42 is not the only indication of this. Verse 44 says, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common” (emphasis mine). This is an important verse and is how God lead me to these elements a community can gather around. The saints chose to gather and maintain a collective heart and mind. This is the unity that multiple New Testament verses mention (1 Cor 1:10, Eph 4:13, John 17:23). They gathered around a shared heart for Jesus and each other. They had a shared purpose for building the body up and equipping each other to do the work of the ministry. And, they shared a vision to see Jesus glorified and others brought into the Kingdom.

Verse 46 tells us, “And day by dayattending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts” (emphasis added). The Saints gathered to worship and eat together daily. It was not a Sunday and Wednesday type of gathering. Their gathering was not from a sense of duty. Instead, it was out of their affection for one another that they would gather.

Much Together

Three out of those five verses repeat the point that the saints were together, constantly, day by day, eating and worshiping together. They made a commitment to remain connected and gathered in complete unity. And, their focus was not simply to be around like-minded people. Their connection was more than mere proximity. Their connection was about communal transformation in Christ. This connection also drove them toward challenging each other. In his commentary, Matthew describes the importance and benefit of their unity by saying, “they were much together.”

When a group of believers commit to each other, they are much together. And there is much for Jesus to manifest Himself.

photo: Elly van Laar

Gospel Centered Missional Community: The Walk

Walk

Last week I wrote a post defining Gospel-Centered Missional Community (GCMC). If you have not read it, do that now. Understanding how we define GCMC, and its intent, is crucial to understanding this and the next three posts.

In a nutshell, GCC (Gospel-Centered Community) is a body of committed believers, connected by a shared purpose and vision, to see Jesus glorified. They challenge each other into deeper relationships with Jesus and one another. GCMC is the functional output of GCC and focused on cultivating relationships with others, to make disciples who make disciples.

Preparing to Go

It is one thing to define Christian community and its purpose on paper. It is an entirely different experience to work toward living in that community. This is a good moment to clarify a few things. First, the entire process centers around Jesus. Living in community with other Christians is about pursuing, praising, and making much of Jesus. If there is any underlying motive, the gathering becomes about you and is not authentic Gospel-Centered Community.

Second, this type of community is hard. Really hard. It requires your whole life, rather than the ease of attending a 90 minute Sunday worship service. Real community is messy and forces you to abandon your plans. You have no choice, but to go to Christ every day, for the sake of the community. It requires that you study the word of God and flesh it out as a body. And because it is hard, it takes time. Lots of time. Authentic community is nothing less than a lifetime pursuit. It will likely be the most amazing experience you will ever encounter. Once I encountered this way of community, it ruined me in the most wonderful way. The Bible clearly shows how GCC is the best way to pursue Jesus and live the abundant life He promised.

The Path I Took

So, how did God bring me to this point? From 2009 to 2011 I was able to experience authentic Christian community lived out on a small scale. During this time, God continuously brought me back to Acts 2:42-47. This passage of scripture provides the clearest picture of community focused on the person of Jesus. From that experience, God ignited a passion in me to live my life, toward Christ, with other committed Christians. And not just on Sunday, but every day. After a significant amount of thought, conversation, prayer, and study; I designed a visual for this journey, and I have titled it The Walk.The Walk

The Walk is a set of practices, for the purpose of guiding the formation of community. The intent of the process is that it is flexible enough to be implemented under numerous strategies. The process begins with three fundamental principles which guide the entire process. Those principles are Connection, Challenge, and Cultivation.

Committed Actions in Community

Within community there are committed actions that hold up each guiding principle and continually move the group toward GCMC. These committed actions are exactly what they sound like: actions that each member of the community commits to in order to see Christ exalted and the gathering flourish under His headship. There are four committed actions: Gather, Seek, Submit and Sacrifice. Each of these actions are defined by specific elements. For example, in order to fulfill connection within the community, we gathering around a shared heart for following Jesus; a shared purpose of loving each other, God and neighbors; and a shared vision to see God’s kingdom come to earth. These three elements define what it means to gather as a means of connection, and advance the community toward challenge. The committed actions and their associated elements are:

  • We will connect ourselves to other believers by gathering around a shared heart, purpose, and vision.
  • We challenge each other to seek God; to practice unity and good-will; and to submit to the Word, one another and the body so that we may walk as Jesus walked.
  • We will cultivate disciples who make connected disciples by sacrificing our time, resources, and self.

Moving the Process Along

The remainder of the process, specifically the arrows, are present as reminders. The green arrows remind us to keep moving toward a missional mindset. The dashed, blue arrows remind us to never leave the previous action behind. Specifically, while we seek together, the arrows prompt us to still focus on intentionally gathering; or as we submit to one another, to still seek together, and so on. The red arrow is likely the most important; it is our mission arrow. It testifies to our purpose, that is, as we follow Jesus we are to be His witness to the world and make disciples. Cultivation always promotes connection; between the body and between others and Jesus.

Why this Process?

Because every community is different, the flexibility of this process allows communities to define each element in their context and develop their own strategies. However, there is one aspect that needs to remain predefined. The yellow arrow, labeled “Gospel-Centered Community,” illustrates the possibility of a community culminating the building process with the principle of Challenge. If that occurs, the community may grow together, but never realize the fullness of community Jesus desires for them. We often see this inside of institutional church settings when they promote a “small group” ministry to encourage community. In doing so their members gather weekly, outside of Sunday, and are able to connect with other believers. Often these groups are able to mature toward  challenging each other to seek God, unity, and goodwill. Some groups may progress to practice the act of submission. All of this is good and constitutes a form of community that focuses on the saving and sanctifying message of the Gospel.

However, that is not the entire Gospel. For us to experience the fullness of Christ, we must acknowledge the missional aspect of His Gospel. Sadly, many small groups only ever achieve the “self-focused” version of community. But, a community which allows the Holy Spirit to move them into a place of sacrificial giving, for the purpose of growing disciple-makers, will move from understanding into living out the mission of the community.

The Commitment

In the simplest terms, the process of walking in community is a commitment to three things:

  1. Connecting to other believers
  2. Challenging one another to walk as Christ
  3. Cultivating disciples who make disciples

As we commit ourselves to Jesus’ command to love one another, we will grow to understand what it means to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. As we grow, He will equip us to love our neighbor and carry out His commission to make disciples of all nations.

The next three posts will address each of the guiding principles and their associated committed actions.

photo: Windsor Go

Defining Gospel Centered Missional Community (GCMC)

community

For the last few years a few and my friends and I have been talking about community. The focus is on what it would look like to live in authentic community with other Christians. It is a topic that has consumed large parts of our conversations and time. During that time, we have all written down our ideas and meshed them into a conglomerate of processes. My friend and co-host of The (G)odd Show, Thomas Hogan, has been the most intentional about collecting these ideas.

In my last post I talked about being committed to building and helping others build lasting Gospel Centered Community (GCC). In order to provide a clearer picture of what that means, it is important to define that for you. So, what do I mean when I talk about Gospel Centered Community? Unfortunately, I have not taken a lot of time to write the definition. But, lucky for all of us, Thomas was good enough to write out our ideas so they are easily coherent. Here is what I mean when I say GCC or GCMC:

Gospel Centered Missional Community

We teach a purpose toward ministry called, “Gospel Centered Community” (GCC) and a method of ministry called, “Gospel Centered Missional Community” (GCMC).

The easiest way to define such a life encompassing idea is to define each word’s ideas and modes. And, the easiest way to execute this purpose is by understanding GCC as Jesus moving your heart to intentionally live toward others. And if GCC is an intent to live toward others, GCMC is the missional outworking of that intent, focused on making disciples who make disciples. In the below paragraphs, first I will define the purpose of each word and then under that, provide the practical outworking of that word as a method.

Gospel

By Gospel we mean the life altering invitation by God to come home. The cross of Jesus Christ is the extension of this invitation. He has made the way for us to be close to God, to not feel ashamed or rejected, to be clean and whole without any hindrance or condemnation.

The Gospel invites us into God’s family and we should be decorating the invitation for others. By growing into maturity, through being a disciple and discipling others, we extend that invitation through our commission and emulate Christ’s work on the Earth.

Centered

By Centered we mean complete balance in your life. Balance between Heaven and Earth, between friends, family and ourselves, and between hurts and all joy. Our lives should be experienced, not buried in a landslide of religious duty or distracted by every wind of philosophy. We must find the center of our souls. That center is found in a loving, growing, and forward relationship with Jesus Christ. It is only from a place of spiritual identity and openness that balance is maintained.

In a Centered life our efforts and actions reflect simplicity. We best experience centeredness by living at peace with others, as best we can, and revealing the love of God through unity. In areas where being right and relationship come into conflict, we should seek relationship first and being right through developing our faith.

Missional

By Missional we mean that we exist for the benefit of those around us. We have abandon self-centeredness and embrace the mission of God to reach and heal the lost and hurting. By focusing on the greatest commandment, the great commission and the new commandment we fully encompass God’s heart for the world.

In a Missional community we create opportunities for others to interact with God’s love by meeting real needs in the real world. Christ is teaching us to love each other, so we can love God and love our neighbor. We best express that love by tangible manifestations in our neighborhoods. In doing so, our neighbors are able to see Christ pursuing them without compulsion or prerequisites.

Community

By Community we mean a place and a people who are truly “your own.” We are not meant to find balance or experience the grace and power of God alone; we need each other. There is no version of community that doesn’t begin with deep-rooted love and end in freedom. In community we are free and with our people we can explore the richness of love from the Father without fear or restriction.

In Community we find our greatest purpose. Community spurs us on when we become weak and tired; in turn we use our gifts, talents, and abilities to interact in the work of the gospel. By experiencing the ebb and flow of conflict, grace, forgiveness and reconciliation of “body-life” we see the clearest picture of Christ among us.

Scriptural References: Acts 4:32, Acts 20:32, 1 Corinthians 5:13, Philippians 2:1-4, James 3:17-18 & Colossians 1:6-7.

If you have an interest in continuing to this discussion or developing GCMC where you are, I (or Thomas) would love to talk with you about it. You can contact me by clicking the below link:

Let’s talk about GCMC!

photo: Trinity Church
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