Notes on “What’s So Important About Community?”

Notes on “What’s So Important About Community?”

This week we continue our “Questions That Matter” series with a question about community. This is deeply connected to our upcoming festivities this Sunday as we gather together to celebrate Independence Day. As we connect with one another, we will see floats and friends, we will laugh, we will see one another and this day of celebration through a common lens. We will surely meet new people and see people we haven’t seen in a long time. We will connect in an important way! I suggest that this kind of connection carries emotional and spiritual importance for us all.

Romans 12:1-8 (CEB)

13 So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service. Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.

Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Instead, be reasonable since God has measured out a portion of faith to each one of you. We have many parts in one body, but the parts don’t all have the same function. In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other.We have different gifts that are consistent with God’s grace that has been given to us. If your gift is prophecy, you should prophesy in proportion to your faith. If your gift is service, devote yourself to serving. If your gift is teaching, devote yourself to teaching. If your gift is encouragement, devote yourself to encouraging. The one giving should do it with no strings attached. The leader should lead with passion. The one showing mercy should be cheerful.

Consider these questions:

  1. What’s important to you about gathering together with other people? Does it have to be people you know? Do those gathered have to have something in common?
  2. How do you feel when you’re in a gathering? Is your emotional response different when it’s family, friends, acquaintances, strangers? If so, how?
  3. Our congregation has expressed strong desire to Worship together in person. If you choose to join in-person, what is your emotional and spiritual response to being there?
  4. If you continue to Worship from home, how do you maintain spiritual connection? What more can your church do to connect with you?