Chazown

Where there is no vision, the people perish...
- Prov 29:18a (KJV)


This past week in group, we talked about our vision for our group in the coming year. Specifically, I asked these 2 questions:

1. It's 1 year from now and this group has been everything you ever dreamed it could be. What does it look like?
2. How did we get there?

The answers were truly fascinating. Not in their differences, but their similarities. We do not want different things, we want the same things.

As I sorted through the lists, by far the biggest thing that stuck out was CONNECTing with each other. In some instances, this meant sharing more deeply during our group meetings. But in most of the replies it meant CONNECTing with each other outside the confines of Sunday afternoons.

The thing that was really significant was that this was the #1 answer on BOTH lists. What does that ideal group look like? CONNECTing. How did we get there? CONNECTing. It's a bit redundant, isn't it? It's a bit redundant isn't it?

Well, no...not really. Why should we expect anything else? When the Leadership @ Threads picked the name Community Groups, they knew what they were doing. Community is something we long for, something that stirs a desire within each one of us. It's also how Jesus taught us to live. Of course it's both effect and cause for that ideal group.

What else was on our minds? I could tell you in my own words, but Luke put it so much better:


All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
- Acts 2:42 (NLT)


Check out those key points:

1. Teaching
2. Fellowship (Community)
3. Sharing in Meals
4. Prayer

I love how in this single sentence Luke says SO much. This is what the early Church was all about. And it's still what drives us today.

Now let me show you one more thing about this passage. Check out that 4th word. Devoted. They DEVOTED themselves to these things. What does that mean?

Allow me the liberty to paraphrase this verse with our group in mind, at the stage we're at right now:


All the group members thought that Bible-based teaching, sharing life together, and prayer were really good ideas.


Ouch. That stings a bit, doesn't it? But we have to be honest about this - it's where we're at right now. If we look at ourselves honestly, we can't say that we're DEVOTED to these things. But we do have that vision. We can see it. We know we want it.

So what will it take to get from here to there? How do we go from "we thought they were really good ideas" to "we were devoted"? There's only one way...

We have to make sharing life together a priority.

It's so easy to say, but so hard to do. Because it's not something that will happen by default. It's something we have to commit to, something we need to intentionally carve time out of our busy schedules for, something we need to purposefully pursue and hold ourselves accountable to. Which leads me to the big question:

What are you going to give up in order to make room for the others in the group?

It has to be something. We can't do it with our schedules and priorities the way they are now. Something has to change. Something has to give. True community - the kind of CONNECTion we so desperately want and need - will not happen by accident. We have to MAKE it happen.

What are YOU going to change to make that happen?