Wednesday

OUR VALUES - COMMUNITY - Mission

Acts 2:42-end, Acts 4:32-end

These two passages give us a sense of the kind of community the first disciples developed. We can spend a lot of time wishing that we had that kind of community here at St Andrew's, but there are some interesting things to note about how this community sprang up.

First and most obviously, it was the work of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit had radically chanhged these people.

Secondly, it was not necessarily based on deep friendships. The community of believers had grown by 3000 people in one day and others were being added daily. The disciples had learned to develop an open community that allowed lots of people in, that allowed for lots of new relationships being created, without it negatively effecting the depth of fellowship and community. That is a radical departure from how most churches want to develop community.

Thirdly, the depth of community was not at the expense of mission. I was watching a video yesterday about a church in Texas and their journey to develop mission and community life in their church. What they had learned was that if they focussed on developing community then mission suffered. However, when they focused on mission, community was able to flourish. (www.shapevine.com and it is the second of the video exclusives). The early church was keenly focused on mission but in that focus healthy community grew.

Back