There are many factors that make a community healthy. A healthy neighborhood community would include things like arts, education, healthcare, civic engagement, housing, employment, and more and the healthy level is attained when all the members reach the Shalom (nothing is missing, nothing is in excess).
We believe that the Church of Jesus, as large as it is, should follow the example set by Jesus while He performed his ministry on earth: smaller groups in number so that all the members can have an active interaction. With the one biblical of 3-20 people Growth Communities can be large Let’s transition into a Christian Community as we define it in GC.
Jesus prayed to the Father for His church as recorded in John 17. He asked to keep His church protected from the evil one but not out of the world. We, as the Church, are called to also be a manifestation of God’s love to humankind.
It is harder to share the love of a father, the belonging to a family and the lack of this relationship brings pain and sorrow to life.
There was a time when the Church was the center of healing and comfort. Even in 2001 after September 11, churches were flooded with people seeking meaning, but something has changed during these years.
In our personal lives we are called to pursue Christian spiritual growth in relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ like taking the mask and pulling it and placing it over our nose and mouth THEN WE CAN ASSIST OTHERS.
We engage in personal spiritual practices some of the manifestations of these disciplines are: prayer, Bible engagement, weekly worship services, spiritual friendships, church covenanting and tithing.
Desiring to follow these disciplines leads us into BELONGING to a community, and it helps us BECOMING more equipped that can be seen by the way we display the Christian character in us in the choices, attitudes and conducts in our daily lives.
My prayer is that we long for our GC as we long to be with our families
Paul appointed elders on the planted churches and then he sent letter of encouragement and guidance to these elders and he sent overseers like Titus and Timothy over these churches, but Timothy, Titus and even Oaul were not superheroes they needed support from there own churches as we can read in 1 Timothy 2:1-2
2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
And I will come to 1 Timothy 3:1 3 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.
We need to pray for the leaders of our GC, their labor is not easy and it has been really hard for the last two years. We need to honor their aspiration to guide, support and we need to support them in their labor.
Genesis 1:26 reads God’s declaration when He created men: “Let US create man in OUR image, in OUR likeness.
The beauty of God’s community is that being formed by various persons with different missions they are ONE. Deuteronomy 6:4 affirms: Hear or Israel, the LORD OUR GOD, the LORD is ONE.
Let me go back to the word and concept of church or the original greek Ekklessia. This word has become known as a “religious” based word but history has records from Ecclesia in the ancient Greek. It means “gathering of those summoned”. It was an assembly of citizens in a city-state the oldest being the Athenian Ecclesia, with the most detailed record, functioning in 621 BC.
