Question: How many different communities do we belong to? (Church, gym, school, village, online community)
Pictures for community.
#1 two separate circles: disconnected communities (church and wider community)
#2 small circles within a big circle: cluster of communities but still isolated
#3 overlapping circles: interconnected communities
#4 one circle in another larger one: church at the heart of the community?
God and the wider Community
How does God see our community beyond the church? Does he think about it—at all, occasionally, all the time? Does he long to see change and transformation in the lives of all those people with whom we have some sort of contact through our days, and even those with whom we have no contact at all?
Of course he cares, of course he thinks about your neighbours, your work colleagues your school friends. As we’ve said many times: People matter to God.
God’s heart for the community: Transformation
We worship the God of justice. The Psalmist reminds us that righteousness and justice are the foundations of [God’s] throne. In other word they are foundational to his character. He is the righteous one, he always acts justly.
God has a heart for the poor, the widows and the orphans. The disadvantaged and marginalized can find a place of refuge and hope in his hands.
Through Jonah, God speaks to the people of Nineveh. He looks beyond the boundaries of the church, beund the boundaries of the included towards the excluded.
God’s heart for the community: Compassion
Jesus healed the sick whoever they were. He healed servants and masters, slave and free. He was not impressed by the rich or put off by the poor. Compassion was a key “emotion” of Jesus.
Paul describes God as: the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort
God’s heart for the community: Mission
Rom.10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
Us and our community(ies)
When God blessed Abraham he told him:
Abraham will surely become a great nation and all nations of earth will be blessed through him. (Gen.18:18)
When an expert in the law asked Jesus: “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus answered him by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. A story where the deepest divide is crossed in compassion.
When it comes to the Christian family and its connection with the wider community, the neighbourly love of the Good Samaritan challenges us to cross whatever boundaries exist to offer the care and compassion that is inherent in the gospel itself.
So what is our relationship with our community?
We all know about so-called “neighbours from hell”, but what makes a neighbour from heaven?
God calls us to love our neighbours.
How do we do that?
Let’s take a moment to think about neighbours from heaven. (Flipchart as a large group)
Think about some (three) practical things you/we could do differently to put being a neighbour from heaven into practice.
How should we relate to our community(ies)
#1 See through different eyes
The wider community is not the problem it’s the potential church. Seeing through different eyes means to look outwards rather than look inwards.
Clive Calver once said (at a Baptist assembly if my memory is correct!) that the problem is not the darkness because it’s the nature of darkness to be dark. The problem is with the light that isn’t shining.
Light penetrates darkness and changes it. You cannot turn the darkness on or off, you can only do that with the light. No one ever goes to bed thinking I’d better switch the darkness on otherwise the light will be on all night!
#2 Proximity
“How well do you know George Bush?” Did you know that you are only 6 degrees of separation away from knowing George Bush!
I know Martin Hallet the minister of Goldington Road Evangelical Church. He knows Patrick Hall, the labour MP for the area. Patrick might not know Tony Blair too well, but he’ll know someone who does through the party or the government. Tony Blair knows George Bush.
Get closer to the community. Develop meaningful friendships with people. Don’t treat people as projects.
Jesus spent most of his time around the famous notorious sinners of his day. When he encountered religious people it was usually because they were trying to trip him up or because they had a religious question for him. Typically he challenged their thinking and their behaviour and pointed out God’s great love for those the religious establishment would usually reject.
If we want to be more effective at reaching our communities then we have to get closer to them. There is no substitute for proximity.
#3 Barbecue first
Not the unchurched friends! This is just a way of reminding us that we need to develop friendships before we share the gospel. If you’re going to try getting closer to your community, then you need to remember that you need common ground on which to build.
So barbecue first.
#3 Persevere
Be in it for the long haul.
Commit to the long-term plan of making connections. God can wait longer than you can for someone to take a step of faith.
#4 Shift the balance
We all know about the great commission. We all know that Jesus has given the church the mandate to be the bearer of the good news about Jesus. We all know this.
We also know that Paul was right when he posed the question: How shall they hear unless someone preaches to them?
If we’re really honest, then we all recognise the most of our resources go into serving the needs of the people in the church. I believe that the balance needs to shift towards serving the needs of those beyond the church.
You and I, if we know Jesus as leader and forgiver, if we’ve accepted his great gift of forgiveness, will have an eternity to work out our problems. People who don’t Jesus, don’t have that opportunity.
God loves the world, we must love the world too. We don’t love the values of the world, but we love the world with a passion that comes form the heart of God himself.
