The Joy of Connecting
“And those who believed … were baptized—about three thousand in all! … They worshiped together regularly at the Temple each day, (and) met in small groups in homes. …” Acts 2:41, 46 (TLB)
The church is a community of faith. God designed us to do life together as Christ followers. Peter even calls us a “royal priesthood.” 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV) That means God looks upon us as one, corporately - not just individually. Together, we are one body in Christ. In Romans 12:4-5 (TLB), the Bible says, “Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other, and each needs all the others.” The body is not just one member, but many members connected to each other. That’s a metaphor for the church.
God never designed us to be “lone ranger Christians”, doing faith in isolation. From the beginning of the church, the Bible says that those 3,000 who believed the message Peter preached at Pentecost were baptized and met together regularly at the Temple and in small groups in homes. Is that descriptive of your Christian experience? If not, you’re missing out on the adventure of doing life together with other Christ followers. When that happens, it weakens your faith and the church. Imagine if parts of your body decided to stay in bed when you got up for work in the morning! I’m not sure that excuse would fly with your boss.
To be healthy, we need each other. The writer of Hebrews put it like this in Hebrews 10:24-25 (TLB): “In response to all He has done for us, let us outdo each other in being helpful and kind to each other and in doing good. Let us not neglect our church meetings, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of His coming back again is drawing near.”
If you want to thrive in your faith, get connected with a local church family and begin to do life together. Find a small group of like-minded Christ followers, or host one yourself, and take the challenge to grow together. You can find out more about this over lunch at our Fall Life Class this Sunday after the final morning service on all of our campuses. If you haven’t already registered, you can register now. The class and the lunch are free.
Just like the believers in the New Testament, we need to worship together in both large and small groups if we are to experience the fullness of God in our lives. When you begin to do life together with other Christ followers your faith will grow stronger, and you’ll experience the joy of connecting with others on the same faith journey as you.