Let me humble myself here before I say anything else. I know myself. I need community, and I need it bad. Without it, I get irritable, judgmental, clouded. I'm desperate to get out of my bubble and love other people, but sometimes I feel defeated by my current situation in life that more often than not keeps me trapped at home with only a limited social sphere. I've got my family, my roommates, and then the closest of my friends, but other than that, I don't always get the social interactions I crave.
When it comes down to it, I need to be loved, and to love. I need to pour into others and I need to have others pour into me. Call it what you will, I need to have people to be interested in, and I need people to be interested in me, no matter how dorky, awkward, or weird my stuff might be. It is what it is.
The thing is, I don't like to settle. I can't live with any old interactions talking about the weather or the clothes people are wearing, or even the latest sports scores. I want the real stuff--if it involves hurt or hope or general happiness, I want to know about it. I don't care who you are. I aim to give you as transparent an image of my life as possible, and I expect the same from you, whether or not you agree.
While leading a house church, I saw firsthand how quintessential authentic loving communities are to anyone. The closest thing I know to compare it to is our need to express our own sexuality. Everyone needs to interact with someone of the opposite sex and develop physical and emotional intimacy with someone else. Likewise, I discovered how many people lack community in their life, and what that meant for the expression of the good news of Jesus in their lives.
Shortly after the house church I led became a unified group devoted to loving one another and encouraging others in the direction God was taking them, people started getting saved and lives were being changed. What's crazier was that it was happening even without an "altar call" whatsoever. It was simply the power of the Holy Spirit manifesting in people's lives as their emotional and spiritual needs were being met, one of which being their sense of belonging and acceptance.
Since then, one thing I try to do in my efforts to disciple people is to network with multiple churches and then bring them together in ways each person's strengths can build off every one else's strengths, as well as spur someone on to a deeper relationship with Jesus. Typically, the community of believers that forms out of a hodge-podge of strangers astonishes everyone present.
Even though I understand the importance of community to anyone breathing, I am surprised at what God has been and is doing in me through my efforts to bring believers together as friends and individuals in something bigger than themselves. Never once did I envision that it could send me to France one day.
Right now, I am actively involved with two churches, but one more than the other. It's almost like I'm in transition between my home church, and this church plant I've been going to for two and a half months. Yet, I'm not. There is a delicate balance between total involvement in one church at the expense of abandoning another.
What's more, God recently showed me an old acquaintance whom is now leading the college ministry at a church I used to visit. If everything works out, I might get the chance to rekindle my relationship with yet another church, potentially giving me the ability to have three sending churches when I go to France in about a year.
In case I haven't been clear, I don't network with all these churches just to meet the strongest Christians in the bunch and then mash them together in whatever ministry machine I need to disciple whichever person I happen to be working with at any given moment. Nah, I'm earnestly trying to draw near to God in complete assurance of my own faith.
I don't worry about what people think of me when I go church-hopping, and in all honesty, I expect my personality and love for Jesus will result in my being accepted and welcomed into any church I visit. Every time I check out another church, I hold fast to the confession of my hope, knowing that he who promised is faithful.
Wherever I go, I do my best to spur others on to love and good works, but the thing I need to make sure I always do is not neglect to meet together, because that could very easily become a habit of mine because I am visiting with so many churches so frequently.
I have no idea what God's doing inside of you, but I know God's up to something bigger than me here, larger than life, something heavenly.
(And yes, in case you were wondering, I'm listening to worship music on Pandora right now, and Sanctus Real was playing as I concluded this entry).
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