Community
What makes a community? According to whoever it is who writes definitions on the Internet, a community is generally a group of people living in the same area or having something in common.
Most of us are part of multiple communities. Don’t believe me? I am an introvert with borderline hermit-like qualities; and even I am part of multiple communities, such as my church, my extended family, my neighborhood, my workplace, people in my profession, donut aficionados, Big Blue Nation, and I suppose Amazon Prime members.
Maybe you are a minority, or from another country, or part of one of the many online communities for career development, parenting, fitness, politics, quilting, fishing, a health support group, cooking, home improvement, or antique tractor restoration. We are all members of multiple communities. This week we’re going to look at a specific community of faith found in Acts chapter two and hopefully learn from their example.
Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved. Acts 2:46-47 (HCSB)
Here are three tips I think we can take away from these two short verses to strengthen our faith community:
1. They devoted themselves to meeting together every day. We don’t all live near each other as they did, and yes there is a virus about, so this may not be practical for all of us in a literal sense, but for sure we can devote ourselves daily to God and our church community.
2. They had a joyful and humble attitude. We can always use more of that.
3. They had favor with all the people. As Christians we are to live to please God and not man, but my layman’s interpretation is that they lived in such a way that they got along with everybody to the extent that they could control. Some people will simply never like or accept us because of our faith, but let’s not give them reasons to do so because of how we live out our faith.
What can I do today to be a stronger contributor to my faith community?
By Mark Stuart
Most of us are part of multiple communities. Don’t believe me? I am an introvert with borderline hermit-like qualities; and even I am part of multiple communities, such as my church, my extended family, my neighborhood, my workplace, people in my profession, donut aficionados, Big Blue Nation, and I suppose Amazon Prime members.
Maybe you are a minority, or from another country, or part of one of the many online communities for career development, parenting, fitness, politics, quilting, fishing, a health support group, cooking, home improvement, or antique tractor restoration. We are all members of multiple communities. This week we’re going to look at a specific community of faith found in Acts chapter two and hopefully learn from their example.
Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved. Acts 2:46-47 (HCSB)
Here are three tips I think we can take away from these two short verses to strengthen our faith community:
1. They devoted themselves to meeting together every day. We don’t all live near each other as they did, and yes there is a virus about, so this may not be practical for all of us in a literal sense, but for sure we can devote ourselves daily to God and our church community.
2. They had a joyful and humble attitude. We can always use more of that.
3. They had favor with all the people. As Christians we are to live to please God and not man, but my layman’s interpretation is that they lived in such a way that they got along with everybody to the extent that they could control. Some people will simply never like or accept us because of our faith, but let’s not give them reasons to do so because of how we live out our faith.
What can I do today to be a stronger contributor to my faith community?
By Mark Stuart
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