For many Christians, church is always been a big part of life. It’s where most of the elements in your faith are learnt. Of course our individual faiths are important, and we often have to rely on them, but we should never underestimate the power and importance of community.
Spending time with other Christians actually encourages and inspires our own personal faith journeys. In community we have a constant support, and when we feel like our commitment is suffering, our friends in Christ can pray for us and remind us about God’s consistent love for us.
I mean look at the life of Jesus; we see that He also loved to spend time in community, whether that be eating and sharing together, He just loved people! During my time at university I was lucky enough to find a group of girls and guys that shared my faith, we jokingly called ourselves God’s Gals and Messiah’s Men, and of course it stuck!
Since meeting, we’ve cooked together, holidayed together and worshipped together. We also met in the morning once a week, for ‘Preakfast’ (Prayer and Breakfast). I genuinely loved this time, it was great to do a bit of bible study and then share whatever was going on in our lives. Pray together – it would really set me up for the week ahead!
I’d really like to encourage you to develop this kind of support network with your fellow Christians, whether that’s at church, a friendship group or Christian Union.
When my faith is struggling, just being around like minded people reminds me about God and my faith. Obviously that doesn’t mean we should only hang out with Christians, we should also be spending time with non-believers, and spreading the good news to them. However having a community in faith is great! Just like the skills God’s given us individually, we are able to use our gifts for each other. Who doesn’t love it when someone has a word, prophecy or prayer for them? Spending time in community removes our selfishness and opens our eyes to the needs of others.
So this week, be encouraged to spend time in community, enjoy building each other up and the support network our faith offers.
By Lois Christine Forster