The Importance Of Community When It Comes To Faith

Normally when I sit down to write I pretty well know what is going to be said from intro to conclusion. However, this morning I only have a simple thought, "Faith is meant to be lived out in community".

Remember what Paul wrote to the Corinthians about love? He was saying that he could be this super-sized Christian, living a faith-life large and beautiful but if he didn't have love then he had nothing and was nothing. You can be the most dynamic, Holy Spirit filled, power wielding Christian achieving great things but if you do not understand and so do not act from a position of love then it amounts to nothing.

Faith is not something we develop. It is something that has been given to us and it increases according to the Spirit. Our responsibility is to act on the faith that we have and as we are faithful to this the Spirit will increase it. That is his work. But this faith is a gift of love that is for the benefit of the community in which we continue to daily work out our salvation.

We are not to live in isolation, and I know this can be hard because not everyone thinks like us. Every Christian is at a different place in their maturity and their revelatory knowledge. This is why our community bond is not based on our knowledge but on what we have in common, which is the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and our love for each other. We are a community because of love not because of knowledge. And we are able to function together in our differences because of this supernatural, over-the-top, self sacrificing, person-focused, celebratory, selfless love.

Just as faith does not originate in us neither does love, and it is this gift of love that enables us to live in community with all our diversity. Let me repeat myself : It is not a bond of knowledge but a bond of love. This is not setting aside the importance of revelatory knowledge, just setting the priority that after everything else passes love remains. Realize, love is even greater than faith because you need love to make faith authentic.

This is important to grasp because it tells us the importance of community. Faith is worked out in community because it is in community that we get to exercise love. It is not simply loving those who love and value us. Jesus asked where the value is in that. The love gifted to us is great enough to form a bond between people who may not see the same way or accept the same things. In the world they may have been enemies but in Christ they are family, brothers and sisters. There is no getting around this. This is truth because it is Father's will and design. We must choose love.

When we try living for Christ by our old nature we will find we desire to be a lone-wolf, to be in isolation, to shout for a mountain top instead of walking with the family. We miss the principle of "iron sharpens iron" and miss the Lord's voice when we aren't paying attention. Our community, our tribe, our family is there to lift us up, encourage us and to remind us of the King's promises. We are there to laugh with each other, to cheer in times of someone else's victory and to cry in times of loss. If we see ourselves set apart from the body, who is going to encourage us in the day of evil? We are also easy pickings for the enemy because when we are alone we are weak and vulnerable.

Faith is lived out in community. Faith is increased by the Spirit when we live what we have. Community happens because of the bonds of love, not the bonds of knowledge. Love means we are united even with people who see differently from us because love is from the Spirit and it is the Spirit who unites us. Unity does not happen because we will it. Unity happens because we choose it. It already exists and we need only walk in it. In this community of love we will find all kinds of places to exercise our faith and see it rewarded with increase. We are in this together.

Faith is possible. Love is possible. Unity is possible. And it is all found in community.

Where Is My Community?

Good morning my friends,

Could you imagine the Church Treasurer standing before the congregation saying, “You people are giving too much. Please, we have enough. Stop already!” Could you imagine a people so possessed by the love of the Lord that they could not stop themselves from giving time, talents and money? It is hard to imagine because we are such a self-centered, self-absorbed society in the Westerner World. What philosophy did we grab hold of that turned us from communities of character to such a cold and individual society? Israel was still in its infancy as a community and was exuberant in its expression of adoration and thanksgiving:


Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done."


Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: "No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary." And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. (Exodus 36:2-7)


It is really hard to imagine a people that would have to be restrained from giving. Most Christian communities feel like they are pulling teeth to get anyone to do anything. Our Christian community is no longer the center of life. We no longer look to it for friendship, support, encouragement. We no longer try to express our adoration of God through this community. Gone are the many community building activities. It is even hard to get people to come out to a simple thing like breakfast. The idea of community has been replaced by individual activities like mp3’s, mp4’s, television, movies, computers, online communities.

In an attempt to recapture some of what we have lost and to allow for busyness we have attempted to create virtual communities. But these communities are stop-gap measure, filling in for a short time what for the immediate we cannot have. This is great for remote people, the sick, the elderly, even shift workers. These communities were never intended to replace the face-to-face personal encounters in community. I think most people know that I enjoy technology and like trying to apply it to every day life, but it has its limits.

The Church is only following in the footsteps of our society. People no longer live where they work and we do not bat an eye at that. Children are bussed out to other communities to attend school. People tend to sleep in one community, work in another, play in another and worship in yet another. There is no possibility to build community like that. Our society is trying to recapture the idea of community but it may be too late. Why talk with your neighbour face-to-face when you can be anyone you want to be on the Internet and talk with someone from the other side of the world. Perhaps that is the secret of the Internet. In community we are accountable, people know us, they know our faults and weaknesses along with our strengths. Yet, on the Internet we can be the perfect person with no accountability for what we say and do.

Regardless of what our many faults are as the community of The Servant’s House Church / School, we are no different in this struggle than any other community. What it will take are a few good people to be brave enough to push past their selfish tendencies and be willing to build bridges into other people’s lives. A few people can change a lot of things if they are willing to move forward in their exuberance. Think of the early Israelite community in its generosity of all things. Think of the early Church in its generosity of all things. What got in the way? Selfishness. People stopped loving the Lord with all their being and their neighbour as themselves.

The Internet is great but it should be no more a distraction than the telephone. In fact, it is like an elaborate telephone. It can be more than that but do we want it to be? It is great to use it to share special moments, testimonies, pass on information, communicate with family and friends at great distances but it cannot replace the fellowship of community. Every time someone stops entering into that fellowship they end up dying to that fellowship and community. Such community building does not rely, cannot rely on one person. We are all responsible for this.

If Jesus Christ remains at the center of that community; if it is his cords of love that bind us together; if we do all things with exuberance for him, we will find the joy of community again.

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