We are beginning a new series on “Becoming Like Family” as our online community begin to share the daily challenges with friends, and we begin to gather our larger community together.

Why would we bother?  One survey found that 59% of 18-29 year old Americans with a Christian background dropped out of church.  Four-in-ten American young adults with a Christian background (43%) believe going to church and having Christian friends is optional.

Source

It’s clear that not everyone feels it’s essential, and with our use of technology to form a new church, you might think we mean to simply form an “online” church where no one ever meets in person.  But we believe it’s essential.  We believe church is essential, but to be clear, we are talking about a community of people.

  • We’re not saying going to a building is essential
  • We’re not saying attending a particular kind of worship service with particular kinds of music is essential

Those might be good things.  But they are things that churches do, not what makes them a church in the first place.

We want to ensure our church community will have five main characteristics.  The first was learning common things about discipleship, and we explored that last week.  The second, this week’s focus, is to be spending time in community together.

Some churches do this at bake sales, ham suppers, and such. For us, it will happen in groups that meet regularly to discuss how they’re growing as followers of Jesus.  We’ll grow and learn together.  Yes, we’ll be learning focused, but we’re also supposed to be a functioning community, a fellowship, in both small groups, and as a large group.

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.”  Well, it takes a church to raise a follower of Jesus.

Question: Why do you think people might avoid joining a church today?  Have you been part of a church before?  Why or why not?

Reminder: The Following Jesus course in Whitby starts tomorrow – visit https://www.redeemthecommute.com/events/following-jesus-course-whitby-2013-11-05/

Reminder: Last week we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - September 16, 2013

Monday - A New Idea - Strangers to Neighbours

Won\'t You Be My Neighbour?

Last week, I shared that a 2005 StatsCan study revealed 61 per cent of rural residents knew all of their neighbours, but only 16 per cent of those living in major urban centres did. This isn’t terribly surprising. Do you have a hard time remembering names in the first place? I certainly do, even though I know I shouldn’t. Sometimes I forget the moment someone tells me…I was too busy thinking about what to say next! But names are important. According to a Lifehacker blog post, “a person's own name is the single most important word to him/her; it is intimately tied to his/her identity as an individual. How you deal with people's names can have a profound effect on their impressions of you: Think about the times you've felt special when someone you admired addressed you by your name in a sincere tone; or think about the times when you've felt belittled when someone negligently called you by the wrong name, or worse, maliciously made fun of your name in front of you.” But something so important is also so easily forgotten. Sometimes it’s physiology, since “names are among the first things to go as our brains begin shrinking — by about half of one per cent annually — starting as early as our thirties.” People come up with all kinds of strategies for remembering names. Personally, I write the name down as soon as I can, since it helps me most to see the name in print somewhere. It works for me, but maybe not you. Question: How well do you remember names? What strategies help you?

Related Topics: Names, Neighbours | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Won't You Be My Neighbour?"

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