“And you who are left in Judah, who have escaped the ravages of the siege, will put roots down in your own soil and grow up and flourish” (Isaiah 37:31 NLT).

God spoke to the people of Jerusalem through the prophet Isaiah letting them know that it was time to do more than survive. It was a time to thrive. They had endured the siege of their city by the Assyrians. They had heard the threats of King Sennacherib against them and their God. They had humbled themselves and prayed. Even their king, Hezekiah, had torn his clothes and put on burlap. He lay on the floor of the Temple, spreading out the threatening letter from the Assyrian king before God, crying out for rescue.

And God answered. He not only rescued them from the Assyrian army, He promised them a season of blessing and prosperity.

Unfortunately, siege survivors have trouble returning to normal life. They’ve been in maintenance mode so long that they don’t remember how to think ahead. They’re so beat up that they’re afraid to take a risk. Like a turtle in its shell, they’re afraid to ever stick their necks out again.

I think that’s why God gave them this encouraging word to go along with their rescue: “Put roots down, grow, and flourish!” People who have experienced starvation are afraid to even let go of the seed necessary to plant for new growth. Their fear paralyzes them, causing them to cling to the very seed that they need to release in order to live. They suffer from a kind of “survivor’s syndrome.”

According to the dictionary, Survivor’s Syndrome is “a characteristic group of symptoms, including recurrent images of death, depression, persistent anxiety, and emotional numbness, occuring in survivors of disaster.”

Psychologists have used this category to describe the symptoms of those in situations as varied as: holocaust survivors, veterans of war, cancer survivors and even those who have experienced downsizing and layoffs at their workplace. The thing they have in common seems to be that they thought they were going to die, but they didn’t. So, they wonder, “Now what do we do?”

Our church has experienced seasons of siege. There have been times when we lost family members to death, times when we took significant risks and failed, times when members became disgruntled and left, times when a trusted leader betrayed us, times when we just thought we weren’t going to make it.

I still remember a time not too long ago when we had to walk away from a failed building project. I called our remaining leaders together (Many leaders left us during this season).

I told them, “It looks like we’re not going to die. It looks like the bleeding is over. I think our church is going to survive. So, since it appears we’re going to live, let’s start over! We planted this church with fewer than we have here tonight, so let’s begin again!”

Those faithful few that gathered that evening stood and applauded. With smiles on their faces they looked back at me and shouted, “Yes! Let’s begin again.”

That was back in late 2006. Since then, we have sowed new seed and put down roots again. We have experienced amazing growth and God has blessed us with a new home. We are in a season of blessing now, but that old “survivor’s syndrome” still grabs at our throats once in a while. It tries to choke off our faith and cause us to hold back and not want to risk.

Let’s throw off thinking like survivors! We are more than that. We are victors in Christ! I believe God is telling us the same thing He told the Israelites.

Let’s do more than survive. It’s time to do more than survive at this house and at your house. It’s time to thrive!

“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known” (Jeremiah 33:3 ESV).

“They all joined together constantly in prayer…” (Acts 1:14 NIV84).

Last year I finally bought a phone plan that included unlimited texting. I know, I hear you. I’m a little behind the curve. But I figured why do I need to type when I can talk? I mean, isn’t that why the phone replaced the telegraph? No more tapping messages, just talk to each other.

However, people kept sending me text messages. On my old phone plan I had to pay for each one. It ticked me off!

“Stop texting me!” I would shout at my cell phone, whenever someone sent me a text. “That just cost me 50 cents!”

And then, after looking at the text, I sometimes couldn’t even read the thing! Especially when one of my kids or a member of the younger crowd would text me. They used some kind of code.

If I succeeded in decoding the text, I’d be stumped as to how to respond. Should I just call? Or what if I tried to text them back? At the time, I had an older cell phone, so I had to use the numeric pad to find letters of the alphabet. What would’ve taken me seconds to say took minutes to punch. Frustrating.

Finally, I realized I was fighting a losing battle. Texting seems here to stay. I even upgraded to a phone with a mini-typewriter. I can text with the best of them now. I suppose I see the advantage, especially when you’re wanting to communicate with someone who is a little long-winded (Of course, I’m not talking about you. I love talking to you), or you just want to let someone know you’re running late or something.

I am concerned that people are taking this texting thing too far though. Have you seen people standing together texting each other? I don’t get it. Why let technology come between us? I understand using it as a servant of communication, but when it creates distance rather than intimacy, I say, “Stop it!” Just talk to each other.

I’m observing this social distancing in our spiritual communication too. Believers get together to pray and then spend the whole time giving their prayer requests while leaving little time to actually pray. And these requests are often not even from their deepest area of need. Many tend to ask for prayers for distant acquaintances. “Please pray for my mother’s brother-in-law’s next door neighbor. I don’t know him, but I heard that his dog is sick.”

Prayer is a little scary to people in a hurry. We’re afraid to slow down and really hear from God. It’s especially terrifying to people who are afraid of true intimacy and authenticity. When we get face to face and knee to knee to pray together, something other-worldly happens. Prayer is the highest form of communication. It creates intimacy with God and with one another.

So, let’s stop texting God our short, shallow prayers. He invites us to “call” out to Him in prayer, to pour out our souls to Him. Let’s determine to be a people devoted to praying long and deep prayers, prayers that expose our hearts to God and to one another. And let’s devote ourselves to “constantly” praying together, really experiencing what it means to be the very body of Christ with Him as Head.

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV84).

The first century Christians used the Greek word koinonia to describe their new community. This word is most often translated “fellowship” in the New Testament. It may also be translated “communion,” “partnership,” or “participation” depending on context. 

The word comes from the root word koine, which means “common.” Depending on usage, this word may mean to be “common” in the sense of being “ordinary,” or it may be used to describe something “held in common” or “shared.”

When the word is used to describe the original language of the New Testament, Koine Greek, it means ordinary Greek, common Greek. It was not the formal, classical Greek of Plato. It was the marketplace, everyday-Greek of the common people. I think God wanted the New Testament written in a language that common people could understand.

But when the first century Christians used koinonia to describe their newly formed community that began when the Holy Spirit filled them at Pentecost they certainly did not mean that this was a “common” or “ordinary” community. No, they used the word koinonia to describe the new life in Christ that they shared in-common and the new dwelling of the Holy Spirit that knit them together as one body.

Today, there are many common communities, ordinary fellowships of teams and tribes. They have a human sense of oneness built around a similar affinity. But this is not the koinonia of the New Testament. The fellowship of Christians in the New Testament was more than a likeness of belief and affinity, it was rebirth into the one family of God. It was the living Holy Spirit present in each and every one of them, binding them together as one.

You can’t have true fellowship, true koinonia, without the Holy Spirit. Without Him, it’s just a common get-together.

Invite Him to your next community group gathering. Look for Him in your next worship service. Listen for His presence in all of your gatherings. Then, you’ll finally experience the most uncommon of communities.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Acts 2:42 (NIV84)

What makes a true community?

People use the word community to describe all sorts of social groups. But what constitutes a “true” (real, authentic, fully realized) community? If we are born into the same race or family, does our membership in the same tribe equal true community? What if we wear the same colors, tattoo our bodies, endure the same initiation, does our gang become a true community? What makes a true community?

Psychologist and author, Scott Peck, says that most people have only experienced true community in accidental ways and that, usually during crisis. He says that most groups that people think of as communities are really just “pseudo-communities.” He believes that true community requires going through a four stage process of deepening relationships and connection.

These four stages are: (From A Different Drum, M. Scott Peck, M.D.)

1. Pseudo-community: Where participants are “nice with each other”, playing-safe, and presenting what they feel is the most favourable sides of their personalities.
2. Chaos: When people move beyond the inauthenticity of pseudo-community and feel safe enough to present their “shadow” selves.
3. Emptiness: This stage moves beyond attempts to fix, heal and convert found in the chaos stage. Here, people become capable of acknowledging their own woundedness and brokenness, common to all human beings. Out of this emptiness comes the possibility for true community.
4. True community: At this stage the process of deep respect for others and true listening to the stories of others takes place. Peck describes this true community as “glory.” He believes that it reflects a deep yearning in every human soul for compassionate understanding from one’s fellows.

Peck’s description of true community as the “deep yearning in every human soul” is what drives us to tattoo ourselves and identify with tribes. We all have a deep desire for true community.

The Bible teaches us that God made us with this “deep yearning.” He made us relational. He made us to be in relationship with Him and with others. That’s why Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love others as ourselves. In other words, God designed us to be in true community with Him and with HIs people.

As I look at any community that approaches the level of being “true,” they always have a certain “DNA” in common. The first century church described in the book of Acts certainly had this DNA. They had four traits in common. These four traits were a devotion to the apostle’s teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and to prayer. Restated, they might be 1) a common belief, 2) a common identity, 3) a common practice, and 4) a common dependence.

This coming Sunday we’re launching a new 4-week sermon series entitled “The DNA of Real Community.” We hope you’ll be able to hear every one of these important messages. But more than that…

… we hope you find the true community that is found in Christ alone.

(This article is an edited version of the original written by Gary Combs in September 2008.)

“But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many'” (Matthew 20:25-28 ESV).

“Pastor, you’re always talking about how God gives us spiritual gifts and a call to serve, but I don’t know what my gifts are and I don’t really feel especially called to serve anywhere.”

“Hey pastor, I know you keep saying that we need more workers in the nursery, but I don’t feel called to serve there.”

“Hey PG! I noticed there’s a need for more greeters during the second service. I think I can add that to my Sunday routine if I can just be 10 minutes late for my tech booth duties. Of course, I’m also helping with Lord’s Supper every 5th Sunday, so I couldn’t do it on those days. But…”

These are just a few of the types of comments that I receive from WCCers on a regular basis. There are those who are unsure of their gifting and don’t know where to serve. There are those who always feel that their gifts are somewhere other than where the greatest needs are. And then there are those who do too much, wearing themselves out trying to answer every need.

How I answer depends on the person, but there’s an ideal balance that we advise everyone to follow.

Serve in two places: One according to gifting and one according to need.

This answer satisfies all concerned. It encourages the one who doesn’t feel gifted to get started and try something. It corrects the one who feels that some jobs are someone else’s duty and never theirs. It also helps the one who takes on too many jobs to limit themselves to only two.

The idea of serving in two places also accomplishes two things in the one serving. Using their giftedness in the first place of service edifies them and the church. They will burn with passion and grow in the use of their gift. The church will be built up as they serve in their sweet spot.

Serving in the second place of need will teach them humility and make them more like Jesus. Sweeping floors, picking up trash, changing diapers, serving coffee… serving in the second place refines their servant’s heart.

And it also shows others a little bit more of Jesus, “who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven'” (Matthew 19:14 ESV).

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” The teacher asked her first graders.

“I want to be a police officer!” Shouted a little boy down front, while frantically waving his hand for the teacher’s attention.

“Next time, wait until I call on you Johnny.” The teacher admonished. “But wanting to be a police officer is a good thing. I bet you would be great at it!”

Johnny smiled and nodded his head at the teacher’s approval. He was happy that she liked his career choice.

Good teachers and parents want to affirm their children’s aspirations. They don’t want to “hinder” their dreams.

Yet, we often “hinder” our child’s spiritual receptivity. Whether intentional or not, we can be a hindrance to our children coming to Christ.

Here are just a few ways that we can “hinder” our children in coming to Jesus:

• Having an attitude that children are beneath your “adult” talk of faith.
• Your own lack of belief or poor example.
• Any false teaching that casts doubt on God’s Word
• The weight and priority that you give to following God.
• The kind of example you give of a father (Earthly fathers affect a child’s view of their Heavenly Father).
• (In the church) A lack of committed teachers and volunteers for children’s ministry.
• (In the church) Not enough space and resources given to children’s ministry.

The truth is that children are more receptive to believing in God than adults. Growing older and being more exposed to worldly things does not increase their spiritual receptivity. It lowers it.

Children are the most open to the gospel of all people.

How do you think you are doing at “letting the little children come” to Jesus? How do you think our church is doing?

Do you see any hindrances?