Community, we need it...

Four years ago, I went to Indonesia with Sean Feucht and shared an amazing trip of ministering to churches, and worshiping God and igniting a movement that is still going on today.  I had never met the majority of the team members until I arrived there.  We were on the island of Bali.

One afternoon after I ate lunch with Sean,  and the guys got together and surfed (I tried to!) the waves of Bali. That evening I sat on the beach that evening and watched the sun set.  I remember a profound feeling of enjoyment of God's creation but there was something missing.  I missed sharing this experience with my wife Missy.  I promised myself if I ever got back to Southeast Asia I would bring Missy with me to share the experience.  As amazing as the experience of that trip was, it's nothing if you aren't able to share the experience with someone that you love and care about.  We need community with others.

God created us.  And when he did he said it was good.  In fact after he spent a week creating all this cool stuff he looked at it and said that it was very good!  Until he saw Adam and said, "It is not good for man to be alone, I will provide a helper that is just right for him (Gen. 2:20NLT).

Adam had everything.  He had a perfect relationship with God, the task of caring for the garden of Eden.  If that was me?  I would do my job, enjoy the presence of the Lord and that would have been a great life!  But God saw that something was missing.  A relationship with someone he can share life with.

Church should be like this.  We need each other.  We need to share the amazing experience of our relationship with God with others.   God understood that we needed this community from the very beginning.  Share life with others today.  Join in where God is at work and grab a friend to come alongside and join in the mission.

Acts Kinda Church

Is your church enjoyable?  Do you go to church with an expectation that God is going to do something amazing?  Do you regularly bring friends that don't know Christ to church because miraculous things are happening?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to experience an Acts 2 Holy Spirit moment at your church?  Think of having new believers added to your church each week.  Some of us pastors are already thinking, "I need to revamp my assimilation process if that happened...I need to start more discipleship groups and I need to get more volunteer staff to provide for this new influx of believers!" What a tremendous problem to have!

47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47NLT).

According to verse 47 people couldn't contain their enthusiasm.  They praised God.  And it was fun!  It was enjoyable to be around other believers!  After that initial meeting in Acts 3000 people came to Christ.  These weren't re-dedications, these were first timers!  And literally thousands more turned their lives over to Christ.

What if we went out of our way to live our lives in such a way that would be contagious to the non-believer?  Let's face it.  If you are a believer you have what everyone else is searching for to fill that God shaped hole.  What would happen if we asked the Holy Spirit to show up in miraculous ways to bring glory to God our Father?

I am challenging myself to reach out to someone this week that needs Jesus.  Let's see God's name glorified and watch what happens when we do!