Tag: community

Are You a Church Consumer?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Devotionals, Quotes1 Comment

One of the hallmarks of the modern mindset is individualism. We instinctively focus on the freedom and the rights of the individual to do or say whatever he or she chooses. This attitude has inevitably spread into Christian culture, where my commitment to God’s people has been replaced by the idea that a church should serve and fulfill me, providing the teaching, music, friendship and sub-culture that I desire.

Yet really, this is only an expression of our sinfulness, a way of putting ourselves at the centre of our own lives.

When God rescues people, however, He puts them together to live for the benefit of one another. This means that my greatest concern should not be how a church could serve me, but how I may best serve that church, using the gifts that God has given me.

Question for Reflection

  1. How can you best serve your church with the gifts God has given you?

Resources

Read/Mark/Learn Romans, 232

Image

Tell Others How You Feel

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, PracticalLeave a comment

Tell Other's How You Feel

Before Jesus was arrested and put on trial, He retired to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray with His disciples. When He enters the garden, He takes three disciples with Him further into the garden to watch and pray.

Jesus Shares His Feelings

As they are leaving the others, Jesus’ soul becomes sorrowful and troubled. Jesus knows what is about to happen and He is deeply distressed over it. The distress Jesus feels wasn’t a I left my homework at home, or I can’t pay a bill, or I lost my job kinda distress. The distress Jesus is feeling is a distress that is like death itself.

I don’t know about you, but I have never been so sorrowful, so distressed that I could die. But Jesus was. He was because He knew what was about to happen to Him. The reality and the weight of the cross was bearing down on Him. In that moment, He relates His feelings to the three disciples with Him.

In verse 38 He tells them:

“[His] soul is very sorrowful, even to death;[and He asks them to] remain here, and watch with [Him].”” (Mt 26:38)

You see, while Jesus was God, He was also man. It is a mystery how someone could be 100% God and 100% man, and I am not trying to solve that mystery for us now. I only want to point out that Jesus was human like you and I. As a human, He experienced feelings and emotions just like we do. He felt the weight of heavy situations, just like we do. He felt sorrow and distress, just like we do. Jesus felt these things because He is human just like we are.

A Comfort to Us

Knowing Jesus, the perfect God man, is human and feels emotions like we do should be comforting. It’s comforting because it tells us He can sympathize with what we are going through. So we need not be ashamed to bring our feelings to Jesus.

Human Emotions are OK

Not only does Jesus comfort us by displaying His emotions, but He also teaches us human emotion is ok. It is ok to feel, and to share your feelings with others.

True But Hard

While that is true, I believe sharing our feelings is something we aren’t comfortable with. And, at times, I would include myself in that group – the group that thinks they have to keep their feelings bottled up inside because they believe doing so makes you more of man or more independent.

That, however, is not true. Jesus shared His feelings with His disciples and you better believe He is more of a man than we could ever hope to be.

So we see then that it is ok to feel and it is ok to share those feelings. It’s ok to tell your kids you love them. It is ok to tell your spouse and your friends how you are feeling. These things are ok to do. Jesus did them and so should we.

Question for Reflection

  1. Do you struggle with sharing your feelings with others? Why?

Resources

Post developed from my sermon: Jesus Stayed, Even Though He Knew

Image

4 Reasons Christian Community is Important

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Practical5 Comments

People in Transit

Some see Christian community as optional.  They don’t see Christian community as a necessary part of their Christian life. It is a take it or leave it sort of thing. They go to church when they want, and they associate with other Christians on their terms.

I, however, believe Christian community is an important and necessary part of our Christian life. It is something all Christians should strive to cultivate.

4 Reasons Christian Community is Important

First, being apart of a Christian community is important because it’s vital for Christian growth.

We need other Christians to teach us, encouragement us, pray for and with us. We need other Christians to hold us accountable and provide us with godly counsel. All of which are vital for Christian growth. Without them, we might grow some, but we aren’t going to become fully mature disciples of Christ.

Second, being apart of a Christian community is important because it’s vital for our well being.

Being apart of a Christian community means that when we fall on hard times, we have somewhere to turn. We can count on the church for financial assistance and general care. All of which are vital to our well being.

Third, being apart of a Christian community is important because it’s vital for our mission.

As Christians we are called to make disciples. Making disciples includes winning people to Christ, baptizing them, and teaching them, so that they become fully mature followers of Jesus Christ. In order to be an effect witness, we need Christian community. In order to effectively teach others, we need Christian community.

Lastly, being apart of a Christian community is important because community is a Grace.

It is a gift God has given us. Sadly many in the American church don’t recognize it as a gift of God. I think that’s because we are free to worship as we please, where we please, and with whom we please. We have taken for granted what we have. Commenting on this one writer says,

“It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us… Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.” [1]

Conclusion

Christian community is important and its something we should desire. All believers should want to be apart of a Christian community. To gather together with other believers. To fellowship with them. To do life together with them. To worship with them. By nature Christians are a communal people. God has set it up that way, and we should honor God’s design. We should be apart of a community of believers.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do you believe Christian community is important?
  2. Would you add another point to my four above?

Resources

Want to learn more? You should check out:

Image

[1] Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 20

Christian Community Occurs In and Through Jesus

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Practical5 Comments

Jesus Cross

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together, a book exploring Christian community, says,

“Christianity means community through Jesus and in Jesus.” 1

Bonhoeffer blends two concepts into one succinct sentence.

Bonhoeffer’s Two Concepts

(1) Only those who profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior experience Christian community. 

You can’t pay your way into Christian community. Only through Jesus’ payment on the cross and our subsequent salvation are we granted entrance.

In other words, only through a relationship with Jesus Christ are we able to experience Christian community.  That’s because Christian community isn’t a club or organization. It is a gathering of believers whose hearts have been changed by the gospel.

(2) Only those who are empowered by Jesus can live in Christian community.

We not only must experience the grace, love, mercy, peace and forgiveness of God before we can express it in community, but we must also be empowered by Jesus to live in Christian community in a way that honors Him.

Christian community is comprised of people from every walk of life, nationality, race, socioeconomic class, etc. It is a melting pot that is ignited and sustained by Jesus. Only through His empowering are we able to live together in a way that honors Him.

Conclusion

Bonhoeffer is right. Without Jesus there is no Christian community. We need Him to create it through His death on the cross. As well as we need Him to sustain it through His empowerment.

Christian community then, in Bonhoeffer’s words, does in fact occur “through Jesus and in Jesus.”

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do believe Christian community occurs in and through Jesus?
  2. How have you experienced Jesus bridging the gaps between you and others who are not like you?
  3. How have you experienced Jesus empowering you to live in Christian community?

Resources

Want to learn more? You should check out:

Image

_____________

  1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 21. ↩

Why Don’t People Participate in Christian Community?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Practical7 Comments

IMG_6096-1

Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone says,

“Over the last three to four decades Americans have become about 10 percent less likely to claim church membership, while our actual attendance and involvement in religious activities has fallen by roughly 25 to 50 percent. Virtually all the postwar boom in religious participation – and perhaps more – has been erased.”

Why is involvement in Christian community decreasing? There are several reasons.

Reasons People Don’t Participate in the Church’s Community

(1) Individualism – A lot of church members are individualistic believing they can change by themselves.

(2) Compartmentalism – Most people tend to compartmentalize their lives. There is church life, work life, and family life.

(3) Busyness – Almost all Americans are busy. But we all know we make time for what is important. So when we say, “I am too busy”, what we really mean is that living in community with other Christians is not important to us.

(4) Consumerism – Most Americans are consumerists. They come to church in order to get, but are not willing to give. They are content sitting in the pew week after week because they have been conditioned by society to consume and shop around instead of plugging in and getting involved.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do you resonate with any of these points?
  2. Are there others reason you would offer for why people don’t participate in the Christian community?

Resources

Want to learn more? You should check out:

Scriptural Metaphors for Community

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Practical8 Comments

IMG_6094-1

I have been preaching on community lately. In my studies, I ran across several metaphors in Scripture characterizing the Christian life as a community. Here is what I found:

The Church is the Body of Christ

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Ro 12:4–5)

“Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Co 10:17)

The Church is the Household or Family of God

“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mt 12:50)

“So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.” (Ga 4:31)

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Eph 2:19–22)

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,” (1 Pe 1:14–15)

“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” (1 Pe 4:17–18)

The Church is pictured as a flock

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Lk 12:32)

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (Jn 10:16)

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Ac 20:28–30)

Question for Reflection

  1. What are other biblical metaphors for community?

Resources

Want to learn more about community? Check out: