This Sunday we will begin a new series on community. The series will run for six weeks until Lent starts. The idea of a series on community came to me after the ministry team and church board had a retreat in the fall. It seems like folks at Marion desire and appreciates community.
Community is defined as a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. Community centered around following Jesus goes beyond that definition to entail worship, service, caring for each other, and a true focus on honoring God.
As I think about our community and the folks at Marion, I wonder…
How are we building community?
Is it just on Sunday morning?
What other ways besides Sunday morning are we building community?
Are we only focused on building community at Marion?
What about in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and the world?
What does it mean to live in community?
Maybe over the next several weeks we can wrestle with some of these questions.
This Sunday I invite to think about how we were designed to live in community.
From almost the very beginning, God recognized that man needed someone.
Genesis 2:18-23 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every animal of the field, but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”
In Genesis chapter one, we that God is community in the sense of the Trinity. And we are created in God’s image.
Our design for community means we are wired to need others, to be in relationship, and most importantly to be in relationship with God. As the creator of human life, God designed us for human connection and relationships.
What are the parts of community that your really appreciate?
What are the parts of community that stretch you a bit?
Do you desire more or less community?
What would that look like for you?
Let’s talk about it on Sunday.
~ Pastor Dustin
