benefits of real community

So as I mentioned earlier this week, I was gone at a retreat last weekend, and boy it was crazy awesome.

I had never felt such a strong and close Christian community within our youth group than I did last weekend. 

There are so many benefits to real and raw Christian community that I wanted to share.

The thing is, having true Christian community isn't always an easy thing and every since I've been in youth group, this closeness had not yet occurred until last weekend. The closeness must occur as a result of God opening the hearts of those present and a bonded trust with the other people in the group. Everyone has to be willing to open themselves in a vulnerable way which means that a trust must be created through the people in this community. 

1. Community encourages you to become more like Jesus.

In Hebrews 3 we are called to encourage one another as long as it is called today. One of the best ways to be encouraged is through a community of believers that reflect Christ. Seeing other people seeking to honor Christ with their lives is encouraging in a world where self is put above all else.  

(Hebrews 3:13) 

2. Community reveals your gifts and talents

This weekend as we took the three hour drive home, we went around and initially were going to highlight each of the individual's personal talents. It turned into highlighting the things we admired in each person and it turned into a complimenting fest. Each individual has a place in the body of Christ and it is important to know that you are significant to the community of believers. 

(1 Corinthians 12:12) 

3. Community helps meet our need for love

Even though Christ can only fulfill our deepest need for love, God gives us the gift of loving one another. The brotherly love (phileo) we show to other people is a representation of Christ who was the greatest friend who laid down His life for us. We are called to love one another in this beautiful way to once again be a reflection of Christ.    

(John 11:35-36)

4. Community teaches you forgive and to work through conflicts

 Yes, community is wonderful and full of love, however, this world isn't perfect and we are on a journey to becoming more like Christ. When you are with a mix of different types of people with different personalities who love each other deeply, hurt and misunderstandings are going to occur. Even though this is a hard part of community, it makes us more like Him, which is the ultimate goal in the first place anyways. 

We are called to be an united Body and this concept is not always a natural tendency. This causes us to have to lay down our pride and become humble and it enhances our communication skills. Christ uses the hard elements of situations to teach and grow us. 

(1 Cor. 1:10 and 1 Peter 4:8-11) 

This has been a journey to real community in my youth group, and I've been praying for something like this for nearly four years. I might write more about that in a future blog post since my youth group has been a huge mess of change, with the youth leaders changing, assistants changing and the individuals in the youth group changing. (And by that I mean that a lot of kids moved and new ones started attending our church) It was hard because every time I thought we made progress in becoming closer, we would have an issue with kids respecting the leaders or maybe the leaders being too competitive.
So the fact is, our youth group has come a long way in creating vulnerable, Christian community.



How have you been influenced by Christian community?