Experiences are different when shared with others. It is one thing to watch a movie, listen to a song, hear a story, fix a door, or sing a song by yourself. It is quite another thing to do it with others.
Each person that we share an experience with brings a different perspective on our situation and we learn from each one. When we do something in community, we learn new things about ourselves, our world and our Heavenly Father. Community is a good thing.
Now most of the time we do not have to be reminded of this . . . but we do have to be reminded to appreciate it. We take the community of people around us for granted so easily. We assume that those people we go to church with, eat lunch with, work with or live with will always be there to make our lives the rich and wonderful experiences that they are.
In that comfortable place, we forget to dig deep into community and learn intentionally from those God has placed in our lives. Again, it usually isn’t something we do on purpose, but without that daily strategic approach to community, the fruits of those relationships are never harvested.
It would be easy for the same thing to happen after the Cape Town 2010 events in October. No matter how you participated, you found out about a much larger faith community than you had probably ever experienced before. You now have been able to experience communion with people from over 190 countries. You have heard what worship sounded like. You have listened to the perspectives of the global church on a wide variety of issues.
But here is my challenge for you today. Have you thought about how those experiences have shaped and defined your understanding of Christian community? I can guarantee that they have impacted you, but you may not have yet stopped to think about it. Take some time to answer these questions:
- What new observation did God give you about healthy and dynamic community from your Cape Town 2010 experience?
- What was your role in the community that formed around Cape Town?
- What made you uncomfortable about a global community of believers?
- What lifted your spirits as you interacted with this global community of believers?
- How can you take what you have learned about community and apply it within your local communities (family, friends, work, church, neighborhood, etc)?
Don’t let this global example of a Godly community slip by without asking some of these questions and allowing God to teach you as you debrief!