Created For Community Created for Community We are

Created For Community

Created for Community We are made for relationships and community. - We are a living body, not a building We are an organism, not an organization

Created for Community Christian community is basically a group of people who agree to organize themselves around the ways of Jesus and his command to love one another. It is a place where everyone is a participant. Where people are committed to grow; love, support, encourage and serve.

Created for Community can be messy. Relationships can be messy. Resolving conflict can be messy. Loving people can be messy. Community requires humility, selfless love, grace, and the heart of a servant. And it also demands staying power, flexibility, loyalty and most important, commitment.

Created for Community Consumer culture Personal responsibility • • • We were built for covenant relationships. We want and need to have other people in our lives who are unconditionally, unselfishly committed to us, and we to them.

Created for Community “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,

Created for Community so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach. if it is to encourage, then give

Created for Community encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. ” Romans 12: 3 -8

Created for Community “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized one Spirit so as to form one body —whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free— and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Created for Community Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, ” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, ” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

Created for Community If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Created for Community The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.

Created for Community And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

Created for Community If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ” I Corn. 12: 12 -27 Share our gifts Everyone functioning in their gifted area; no one sitting on the sidelines.

Created for Community Our spiritual gifts are specifically chosen for each of us by God - for our good and for the good of the church. When we share our gifts, it will build community. “Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. ” — Leo Buscagli

Created for Community Build a “culture of honor” • • • celebrate each other more often seeing each other as image bearers of God and a vital part of the community recognizing each other’s gifts, personality and calling

Created for Community • having a high regard for each other with our words, especially when we are not with that person • being willing to take time to understand the challenges of someone else because knowing a person's context helps you honor them properly

Created for Community • encouraging people to use their gifts and recognizing the true value of each contribution. • • We thrive with encouragement and affirmation and we die without it. By choosing to honor each other, we are opening ourselves up to learning from each other.

Created for Community • • A culture of honor breeds unity and unity gives the enemy less of a foothold to harm the community. When we use our gifts in a culture of honor, our “ testimony” is going to be updated all the time. We won’t be living off an old testimony. We will be experiencing God’s new work in and through our lives.

Created for Community What if we created a greater culture of honor? Who is it that you need to honor today?

Created for Community • Hurt, disappointment & unmet expectations • We are flawed, broken people

Created for Community