Community is a word that is thrown around a lot in the World Race. Many people come on the World Race just to live in community. But I wonder if we really know what that word means, or how to create it. Here are some definitions from my handy MacBook dictionary.
a group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership
a group of people having a religion, race, profession, or other particular characteristic in common
a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals
a similarity or identity
a group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat
What I get out of this is that we have to take ownership for the community, have commonalities like religion, interests, and identity, have fellowship, and grow. These definitions also give reference that we are getting life out of community- we can’t live, grow or have fellowship if we aren’t finding life within the community.
So how do we create an environment that allows community to happen and prosper? This is something that has been laid on my heart the past week, especially in reference to my team.
Now that I have been on the World Race about 2 months, I realize that I had an amazing community back home. I had a support system where I was fed, I had fellowship, growth, ownership, identity, and common vision. And the more I realized what I had back home, the more I realized what was lacking from my team community. Yes my team gets along with each other, we do ministry well together, we get things done, we know each other to some degree, we are kind to one another, and try to be appreciative of one another. But it was all on the surface, all fluff with no substance. Steel wasn’t sharpening steel, struggles were kept hidden, and feedback was quite frankly boring.
As far as community goes we were all a bag of dried bones. Dead and searching for a place to pour out.
I will confess that I was just coasting and not fighting for community. I knew what real community looked like and I was still to stubborn to fight for it. I was just going to have community with certain people who I automatically got a long with and just stay on the surface with those who I didn’t “click” with as much. It is still amazing to me how prideful and stupid I can be, but none-the-less this was my expectation for my team this last month. And it left me feeling dried up and dead and wishing that I was back home in my community. Good thing God likes to call us out in our shortcomings so we can live the full life that is promised to us!
Through some amazing team time where I got to lead our hot seat, I was able to confess my coasting spirit and be real about how our team doesn’t have real community. During our time of worship and prayer for one another God gave me a vision. In it my team was standing in a circle, close enough where we could reach out to each other although we weren’t. We were grey and looked dead but we had this light in us. We were searching for a place where we could pour out this light into the world, and we weren’t finding it. Then we all turned to one another and started praying and worshiping together and the light started to pour out, into one another, and magnified and multiplied.
Needless to say this was powerful and convicting all at once. I strongly believe that if I want real community to happen then I need to be intentional about pouring into my team mates. I believe that real community works when I take ownership for my part. I believe real community happens when we move in our giftings to lift one another up. I believe real community happens when we come together and seek the One who is worthy of worship and praise. I believe community happens when we are raw and real with each other. I believe community takes work and effort to create. We have to fight for it- we have to fight against our flesh and the attacks of the enemy. And when we do this, when we are intentional, God will show up and move in our lives. And community will be made.
This month I’m choosing to fight for community. I won’t settle for less than the full and abundant life Jesus has promised me, and my brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is a choice-which will you choose?
