Community & Connectivity

Community and connectivity. These are the two words burning upon my heart today.

When I was in college, away from family, friends, and all that was familiar, I learned the importance of Christian accountability and fellowship for my spiritual growth. Sometimes it seemed way easier to remain distant and independent than to spend all the emotional energy it took for me to get into intentional community. But God eventually taught me that I CANNOT survive as an “independent Christian” - I was cut off from all the amazing gifts and encouragement from other believers that would lift me up in my own walk. The devil did all he could to prevent me from connecting, such that it even took until the middle of my third year in school to finally settle on a local church community. But once I finally pushed through, I sort of re-discovered myself in the context of a larger group. From the moment we are conceived not a single person is able to live independently, which is becoming more the case in our increasingly interconnected world. We rely upon our mothers to nurse us, our families to feed us and provide education, our governments to provide structure for our lives, our employers to provide us with income. We gain something from each of them, and they gain from us as well.


God’s Word is filled with the concept of community and relationships. One of my professors in college taught me that even God is a community within Himself. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Those three Persons provide love, edification, and support within one another. God had no need to create human beings for companionship - He had plenty of perfect companionship within Himself, which we can observe in the gospels as  Jesus constantly went away to speak with the Father and as the Spirit worked through Him (Matthew 3:16-17, Matthew 14:23, Mark 13:46, Luke 9:28). It was such a beautiful thing to experience close relationship with others that He chose to share Himself with humanity.

And so… the entire Bible is the story of God bringing His wayward people back into right relationship with Him so that they can experience the wonderfulness of community with Him. The story ends with a wedding, one of the most beautiful images of relationship - of Christ to His bride, the Church. That’s us. Our ultimate destiny is to live in intimate community with Him in His kingdom:

… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25b-27)

I believe all of those rich relationships we experience now are both a blessing to be enjoyed (and to praise God for!) and a preparation for the community we will experience on the other side of eternity. I certainly recognize that human communities made up of flawed human beings have lots and lots of problems. They‘re always breaking up… and, duh, of course Satan would want to sabotage them because he knows how powerful a group of people united under God is! That is why Satan attacks relationships… it’s why the divorce rate in America is over 50 percent… it’s why nations can’t live at peace… it’s why churches split. Yet isn’t it incredible that despite all these things His Word is reaching the uttermost parts of the earth, bringing people from every tribe, nation, and language into His community, and that one day we all will be reconciled to God and each other in a community more wonderful and enjoyable than any we’ve ever experienced?

The reason all these thoughts have come out today on this lazy Sunday afternoon is because God has been connecting me to an amazing little community since the onset of the year. It encompasses the answers to several prayers I’ve prayed ever since I got the desire to move to Los Angeles County, prayers for a diverse group of believers I can be in fellowship with. My co-workers have proved to be like their own little encouraging community, providing me with some incredibly fulfilling friendships. I had been searching for a local church congregation to become involved in ever since I moved to California, which was my main hope in January. The Lord has finally brought me to a church where I can find encouragement, spiritual food, great friendships, and use my gifts in a way that brings joy to myself and others. They have been a huge source of edification for me these last couple weeks, and I’m overwhelmed at how God chooses to give me such enormous blessings! He truly is the Giver of all good things and rewards us when we earnestly seek Him. (Matthew 7:7-8, Psalm 37:4, Hebrews 11:6) All I had to do was ask. Try it.

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  (Ephesians 4:3-6)


Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)