This week we’re exploring the importance of meeting regularly with other Christians, as part of a church community.

The Bible passage we’re exploring this week suggests two purposes to gathering:  Encouragement and Worship.  We’ll focus on worship next week, and for this week we’ll focus on the encouragement part.

Encouragement to what?  Hebrews says community can encourage us to love and good works.   First, what would it mean to be encouraged to love in a community?  Think of the relationships that form through fun and fellowship.  Our Movie Night is one example – we had a great time, and some online members met one another, and a neighbourhood.  Our Wings & Trivia was the same, and our Christmas Event will be, too.

Honestly, are churches are meant to get along.  I know someone who went to a church and attended a few worship services, and decided to join.  But first, they wanted to attend a business meeting of a church – and he walked away saying, “these people don’t believe what they say.”  They were not charitable, loving, kind or generous at all, even though they claimed to believe in a God who is.

The Church is meant to be a preview of the kingdom of God.  It’s described in the Bible as a party – like we are already in heaven.

The Church is meant to love one another as themselves…even though the rest of the world may not love them the same way.

The Church is meant to care for one another with generosity of Christ, who died for his friends.

We could go on, but it all starts with spending time together, knowing each other’s needs, hopes, dreams, routine and more.  Some people like to call this, “doing life together” even though it’s a bit clichéd.

Question: Go out for lunch, drinks or coffee with someone.  When can you get together with your discussion group simply for fun?  Or if you don’t have one yet, think of who you could share our challenges and discussion with, and start by simply inviting them to something fun.

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 - November 4, 2013

Monday - A New Idea - Groups - in Community

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: https://barna-barnagroup.netdna-ssl.com/images/stories/bu-050713-spirtually-homeless_slice_2_f2.jpg 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.

From Series: "Becoming Like Family"

This series looks at becoming “like family” with others learning to follow Jesus. We're exploring how the church is not a building, institution or event, but a community of people. It's important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.

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