August 24, 2018
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Bible study, community, community groups, fellowship, small groups
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42 ESV). We’re not a church with small groups. We’re a church of small groups. Our church started in my living room with seven people. So, we’ve considered small groups to be one of the keys to fulfilling our… Read more »
July 12, 2018
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church attendance, church growth, church involvement, fellowship, love one another
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” — John 13:34-35 “About 20 years ago, a church member was considered active… Read more »
March 16, 2018
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fellowship, friendship, hospitality, relationships
“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NLT) We want to be a church that is intentional about relationship building. It is one of the three major focuses of our purpose statement, which states that we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ… Read more »
August 25, 2016
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church growth, community groups, faith, fellowship, Gary Combs, koinonia, small groups
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42 ESV). We’re not a church with small groups. We’re a church of small groups. Our church started in my living room with seven people. So, we’ve considered small groups to be one of the keys to fulfilling our… Read more »
January 16, 2015
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Christ, fellowship, forgive, forgiveness, Gary Combs, God, harmony, jesus, peace, reconcile, reconciliation, relationships
What do we do when a relationship is fractured by an offense? How do we find forgiveness and reconciliation? And what do we do when we are faced with the problem of the unrepentant offender that will not or has not reconciled to us. We might even question God, saying, “Do I have to forgive them?… Read more »
October 3, 2014
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Christ, church, community, family, fellowship, Gary Combs, God, jesus
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Acts 2:42 (ESV) 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… Read more »
August 16, 2009
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Romans 12:4-5
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fellowship
Many of you have made a commitment to Christ. You’ve surrendered your life to Him as Savior and Lord. But you’ve lost focus. You started out focused on Christ, but He is no longer the organizing principle of your life. He isn’t the focus.
Perhaps we’ve made following Christ too complicated. We’ve forgotten that following Christ means we have to hang out with the other disciples.
Can you hear Peter saying? “Sure Jesus, I’ll follow you, but do I have to hang out with Judas over there?”
No, following Christ, we become one of His disciples together. Connecting together as we follow Christ has a sharpening effect. It sharpens our focus on Christ.
As Proverbs 27:17 (NIV) says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
In the book of Romans the apostle Paul told the Roman Christians that even though they had followed Christ by an individual decision they must recognize that in following Him they had become one body, connected to other believers. When we follow Christ we make must make an individual decision to follow, but that leads to a corporate identity. We become the body of Christ connected to every other believer.