Community is a Biblical Theme

I wrote this post the The Journey, Atlanta's blog. I am helping the pastors there and my friends to start "Life" groups at their church in the next 6 weeks.

"Community" is a theme that runs throughout scripture. God has always been calling out a people for Himself, beginning with Israel and continuing with the church. Even when the Jews were dispersed among enemy nations during times of captivity, they organized themselves into groups and ultimately formed synagogues (Jewish communities of worship and teaching) where they could serve one another and carry out their beliefs. It was natural, therefore, for Jesus to develop a community of followers and for Paul, Peter and other church planters to start "new communities" wherever they went as they proclaimed the gospel. These new communities began as small groups just as Jesus modeled with the 12 disciples (Mark 3:14; Luke 6:12-19).

Over fifty times in the New Testament the phrase "one another" is used to describe our relationship to other believers. We are instructed to love one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, accept one another, bear one another’s burdens, and build up one another. One of the ways we can obey these commands is in a Life Group! We really do need each other. God never meant for us to go it alone in the Christian life.

Life Groups were an integral part of the early church structure. They were small enough to allow individual members to minister to one another, use their spiritual gifts, and be discipled in the teachings of Christ. In addition, they were vibrant and life-giving communities where evangelism could take place as unchurched people watched a loving and compassionate community in action. Life Groups not only built up the church, but were vehicles for reaching a lost world for Christ.

In the coming weeks, we will be talking about Life Groups at the Journey. We will be experiencing a second “launch” with our Life Groups into our communities. These communities within communities will be one of the primary ways that we push against our culture and help our friends and family wrestle with their issues of faith. I encourage each of you to get as excited as I am about the mission that God is sending us on in the West Metro Atlanta area.