Community Part II: To Accomplish Mission
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. --Acts 2.42–47
When I read and study the book of Acts, I’m blown away to think of all that was taking place. I know how exciting the last three years of church planting have been for me, my family and all those that are now called LifePoint. Planting a church is a rush…or at least it has been in my experience. What must it have been like in the days, weeks and months following Pentecost. We are given an incredible insight into the pattern of the Apostles and the new disciples. I like to think of this pattern as a rhythm…an ethos of how followers of Jesus lived after Pentecost. One danger inherent in reading this passage is to idealize it and make it a ‘pipe-dream reality’ for today. The simplicity of it is amazing and the focus of it empowering. In order for LifePoint to accomplish her mission, we must understand the role of community. Follow me here through these verses…
They devoted themselves…Now this IS worth getting excited about. I love it when people devote themselves to the Gospel through LifePoint. Devoting oneself to anything shows a great commitment, a discipline to it. The disciples devoted themselves to these things not because it was part of a routine, but rather because it was the essentials of their faith. Life is full of that which we are ‘devoted to’. When we devote ourselves to a matter/cause, we give our affections & desires (heart), thoughts (mind), time, energy, money, every part of our life to it. Our problem today is not a lack of devotion. Our great fault is that we have elevated too many ‘causes’ to a level worthy of our devotion. Our grand problem is that we devote ourselves to everything and nothing is left to be hallowed. Devotion to Jesus reflects a change of heart and life. Devotion sets a high standard for how we should participate in the life of a community of Christ-followers and creates a high desire to be faithful. I don’t desire to fill a person’s schedule with more church. I do want to help people fill their lives with that which matters, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a great challenge to teach and encourage devotion. I’m encouraged when I think of all the people at LifePoint who have devoted themselves. You’re invited to join us…
They focused on essentials; the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. This is very refreshing. We live in “Churchville,” as some would call it, in southwest Missouri. Don’t get me wrong, I love this part of the country and thank God every day for calling me here. However, I’m not naïve to my culture. When “church” is mentioned most people think of a location, building or a ‘style.’ Church represents so much more than the description given in Acts 2.42. I wish this were a good thing, but sadly it’s because so many secondary matters have become essential to defining “church” while the essentials of the Gospel have become burdensome to doing church. I believe following Christ, while not easy, is much simpler than most people in “Churchville” have made it and often looks very little alike. This is a typical tendency for people. We love to create standards that make us feel better about our spirituality but have no real power to impact us for the Gospel. How powerful the rhythm of a community of Christ-followers when they celebrate the essentials of the Gospel in all they do. Let’s not be naïve about another aspect of our culture in southwest Missouri, locals are more and more the minority. We live in a fast-changing culture of people from all over the country and world. We don’t have time to champion all the secondary matters of Churchville. We must remain radically focused on the essentials of the Gospel. Community Group is a great environment to do this and a great opportunity for adults to experience what this looks like among a group of Christ-followers.
Committed to one another…All the believers were together. Participation is key to commitment. Together has such powerful implications for the church. If every person is to do their part in together, participation must happen. Church “disconnected from people” is not a Biblical teaching or example. At LifePoint we are taking an aggressive strategy this year to connect adults in Community Group. Why? Together matters and Community Group is the best environment to grow together among our people. Community Group is the primary point of connection for adults. People need to connect with LifePoint in gathered worship experiences on Sunday and in community together during the week. There is far too little room in this blog to fully explain the benefits, but the fullest implication and application of the word ‘fellowship’ will only occur in Community Group. Let us help you connect with a group this week and discover all that together means.
I hope you are thinking through a greater understanding of community and its purpose for LifePoint. Next week I will finish working through this passage and consider some of the more practical details of Community Group in my blog. And by the way…if you have a great testimony to share from your Community Group, please send it to us at info@lifepointozark.com. We would love to hear it and share it!
--Pastor Lane
Labels: community, community groups, lane harrison, mission
posted by Sarah Jo at
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