Connections and Community

As the time for the discussion question, What has been your vision of heaven? started last week at worship, the first person in my group commented that in the past, she understood that when she died, God would give her a nice, big mansion.

All to herself.

As she’s progressed in her journey with Christ, she’s come to understand that is not the nature of the God she serves!

We hear it a lot at church:

We are made to live in community.

Find your tribe.

These are my people I’m “doing life with.”

The guys in my accountability group are iron on iron.

I just haven’t connected with people here.

Some of this talk can leave a person with FOMO (fear of missing out) feeling as if they just haven’t found deep, close relationships in their Christian community. If a person has FOGO, (fear of going out) all of this talk might trigger some social anxiety and an urge to cocoon.

There’s no doubt about God’s stance on the people He’s created:

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 Corinthians 12: 27

Whether your personal preference is to have a few close friends, or to have your finger on the pulse of the entire congregation, you are part of the body, and you are needed.

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As we begin our review of Discovering Grace this week, we’ll be talking about a lot of Grace Church NWA’s guiding principles and ethos. You should have no doubt after this review who is the head of our body! It is not a dynamic, charismatic head pastor, although we do have a teacher who resembles the western European picture of what Jesus might have looked like. It’s not a group of elders, although they are an awesome bunch who have given enormous amounts of time in hands-on service to our church the last eighteen years. Jesus is the head of the body at Grace Church.

Our teachers, elders, leaders, children, teens, the depressed, the single moms, the widowed, foster children, angry, addicted, struggling-with-porn, selfish, generous, wise, and questioning are all part of the body. Tony Evans writes, “Christ’s body, the church, is not an organization, but an organism. We can create a robot and have organization. The parts connect to each other so that it works. But the problem with the robot is that it has no life. It is organizationally connected, but it’s not a living being. A human body, in contrast, has organization that makes it function, but it also is an organism. It’s a living, breathing life. Connection in the body is necessary for function and for life, and it is essential if we are to leave a lasting impact and impression on our society and in our world.”

There are many ways for you to be connected at Grace. It might be in participating in the teaching team, helping to start a new Grace Group that meets weekly for a meal, study and prayer, or getting close with a group of people who are serving in a like-minded mission. When you find a good connection, you will recognize it, because it will feed your soul and be life-giving. Join us in the journey, lose your life, and find it.

Matthew 10:39 The one having found his life will lose it, and the one having lost his life on account of Me will find it.

Teresa Cornett's favorite question from others is "what do you think about ... ?!” so she loves to write when she gets a chance to mouth off.