What is community? What is church?
Community: A group of people who love and support you.
Church: a place you gather on Sundays to worship and hear a word from God
That is how I would have defined community and church before coming on the race. I have grown up with great community, always enjoyed living in community and valued the people around me. But I still always put myself first. My time, my wants and desires, my independence went before my community. I loved living with friends throughout college, but I always believed I would live on my own as I got older.
Here on the race, we can’t escape community living. We are sardined in beds, sharing EVERYTHING from food, clothes, money and personal space. We are slowly but surely learning that it is easier and more beneficial to open our palms and release “our things” and understand that they are not ours. They are Gods. We can become possessive over the smallest things like our peanut butter to laundry soap. Every bit counts on the race, but time after time as things run out and we live off such little we see that God always provides.
My squad is now in month 6 and we are having our second “all squad month”, which means we are not spread around the country and separated into teams doing different ministries, we are all together in one space, one ministry. We have all gotten the hang of community living by now but this month is really opening my eyes to how much my heart has grown by living with others so closely.
This month is the perfect picture of community living as we all sleep in bunk bed rooms, share dormitory style bathrooms, and live amongst each other in a large living room setting with a wide open kitchen, tables for eating and space to lounge together. I LOVE IT. When we are not all snuggled on the couches together we are outside on the deck watching the sunsets and sunrises. We are out running in the fields and playing soccer with the orphan kids who live with us. We are helping build bricks and gardening to take care of the property. We are feeding the chickens, braiding hair and reading under the trees. It feels like summer camp.
Morning time is my favorite time here because the air is cold and the stars are bright. I get up at 5am and come out into the living room where I brew a pot of coffee and slide into my sleeping bag and read my bible. People start to pour into the space, we say our good morning’s and all dig into the Word. After some time we go outside to breath in the fresh air and listen to worship music and dance to the sounds of the farm, praying and pleasing God. We head in for breakfast and sit around the tables chatting about any revelations God showed us through our dreams or quiet time. We all crowd into the living room once more so we can worship, share stories and become unified before we begin our ministry. This is not just community, this is the church.
I am realizing more than ever that church does not have to take place in a building. Church is the body. Church is community. I have never been apart of such a beautiful picture of what God paints for us in the Bible.
So what is community and the church to me now? How have things changed? What makes this community so different than the other communities I have been apart of? Why does God say that community is so important?
God equips everyday people to lead the church. God does not say you have to be a pastor, go to Bible school or be an expert. If you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, you are capable of participating in the mission of Jesus. Everyone is the perfect candidate to accomplish His purpose.
When we believe we are the church we are able to make disciples. Church is not something we go to, church is something we are. Church means “gathering” so people naturally think it is something you go to. But in the Bible the word church is referring to God’s people gathered to Jesus to do his work in the world. We are no different. Whether that is on a team, at a party or in the bush of Africa. We are everyday people from all backgrounds that get together to do His work.
One of my favorite things to do on the race is to throw parties. I love having people over, I love having all my friends together and I believe this is one of the best ways to celebrate Jesus and do church. God doesn’t want us to feast or celebrate as his people. He wants us to remember him, keeping him central to the party showing kindness, love and mercy to all those who lack a reason to celebrate. This community I am with exemplifies “good news people”. They have invited me in and now I get to invite others in. People from all around the world.
Most people see church as disconnected from everyday life. People observe people doing church not Jesus living life through his church. In most peoples mind, church has become merely a religious event.
But this is not the vision of what our church looks like. We are intentionally living together on mission helping others in everyday stuff of life. Yes we have set ministry but a lot of our ministry on the race looks like spending time with one another, playing games, watching movies and doing laundry together.
God’s intent was never to go have us define church merely as an event on Sunday. We don’t go to church, we are the church sent into the world. However, I think sometimes we get this skewed up picture of what missionaries do. We like to think we are “saving people”. Our job is not to be Jesus. Our job as missionaries is to believe in Jesus, depend on Jesus and submit to Jesus working in and through us to accomplish his work. We are not meant to carry the weight of the world or his mission, but we are here to bring the Gospel through everyday stuff of life. We cannot do this alone. We need community.
I came on the race hearing the scripture “go make disciples of all nations”. I always imagine myself preaching the gospel in crazy mountain top villages and getting arrested for sharing the word in communist countries and that is how I would make disciples. Although we do get the opportunity to do that (I have not been arrested YET) I realize that the everyday little things are just as important. I am becoming a more dedicated disciple through my community, my wonder church. It is the everyday all-of-life discipleship that is going to make a difference in others lives. Learning to follow, trust, obey Jesus in the everyday stuff of life requires submitting to and obeying God’s Word in life on life, where our lives are visible and accessible to one another, life in community, where more than one person is developing another and life on mission where we experience making disciples and while doing so come to realize how much we need God’s power.
This month has transformed my heart into loving community and seeing the true beauty of the church. I am so encouraged everyday by the Bible and God’s word of us to be one body. I am truly living in a complete body right now and can start to understand God’s desire for us to be dependent on one another, to grow from each other’s differences and to love and support one another through every circumstance. I am so grateful for this experience and I encourage anyone reading this to try sacrificing more time and independence for the beautiful dependence on your community and on God’s deep deep love for his church body.
