Our Chris­tian faith is not prac­ticed by a group of iso­lated indi­vid­u­als, but by a cor­po­rate body with many mem­bers who are united together by their faith in Jesus Christ. The church is not a build­ing or an actual loca­tion: the church is the peo­ple gath­ered in Jesus’ name. While this cor­po­rate gath­er­ing may be reflected in dif­fer­ent ways of wor­ship (Eph­esians 5:19), teach­ing and preach­ing (2 Tim­o­thy 3:16, 2 Tim­o­thy 4:2), evan­ge­lism (Acts 2:46-47), etc., the end goal always cen­ters around exal­ta­tion of Jesus, the build­ing up of dis­ci­ples, and reach­ing those who do not yet know Him. Scrip­ture is clear that this gath­er­ing should be a foun­da­tional rhythm in the life of any fol­lower of Jesus.

Acts 2:42-47 is a beau­ti­ful rep­re­sen­ta­tion of how the early dis­ci­ples lived out the way of Jesus in com­mu­ni­ty: wor­ship­ping togeth­er, on mis­sion togeth­er, and in com­mu­nity with one anoth­er. In the tem­ple but also in their homes. In both their pub­lic life and in their pri­vate lives. There was a macro expres­sion of the church gath­er­ing as well as micro expres­sions. There was an extended fam­ily of the faith that tran­scended any bound­aries or bar­ri­ers that would have tra­di­tion­ally held them back and kept Jews and Gen­tiles from com­ing togeth­er. It was coun­ter-­cul­tur­al. It was untra­di­tion­al. It was beau­ti­ful.

In the very tech­nol­ogy heavy, indi­vid­u­al­is­tic, autonomous cul­tures of the West, real com­mu­nity is becom­ing harder and harder to engage with. The way of Jesus, how­ev­er, is the way of dis­ci­ple­ship and dis­ci­ple­ship does­n’t hap­pen with­out reg­u­lar face-­to-­face inter­ac­tions with the church (i.e. the peo­ple - you are the church) through­out the week. Small Groups are where this type of life-on-life dis­ci­ple­ship becomes a real­ity in com­mu­ni­ty.

Jesus never called us to live life alone. We are always sup­posed to fol­low Him in the con­text of com­mu­ni­ty. He dis­played this type of inti­mate lifestyle with His dis­ci­ples, where there was encour­age­ment, growth, con­vic­tion, and respon­si­bil­ity within the group of dis­ci­ples. These men walked out their com­mit­ment to fol­low­ing Jesus together and helped each other immensely along the way through the build­ing up of one another and the com­mit­ment to help each other con­tinue in their spir­i­tual growth.

­Accou­ntab­ility is not sim­ply meet­ing with some­one to slap your wrist and man­age your sin; it is a spir­i­tual dis­ci­pline that allows for free­dom, life, and cel­e­bra­tion with other believ­ers. Account­abil­ity gives the per­mis­sion for oth­ers to look into areas of your life, whether they are vic­to­ries or strug­gles, and help you stay com­mit­ted to see­ing these areas through the lens of what it means to fol­low Jesus and become more like Him in these areas.

We have always been taught to put our best foot for­ward, to dress to impress, and to post only the best pic­tures of our­selves on social media. We want peo­ple to see only the best parts of us. Trans­paren­cy, how­ev­er, is the choice to live with­out false pre­tens­es. It is being unashamed to be and present the real you to oth­ers. Real trans­parency occurs when you are com­fort­able being you, flaws and all, no mat­ter what envi­ron­ment you find your­self in.­

Tra­nsparency is not just shar­ing the bad, but the good as well. Many peo­ple see trans­parency as get­ting sin off of your chest, but it also incor­po­rates being con­fi­dent in and shar­ing the key ele­ments of who you are and not try­ing to be some­one you are not. It also means you are shar­ing visions and dreams you have with oth­ers and allow­ing them to hear those aspi­ra­tions that you may not share with just every­one.

We were made to be in com­mu­ni­ty. This is not optional in our pur­suit of and rela­tion­ship with Jesus. The ear­li­est fol­low­ers of Jesus were devoted to fel­low­ship because they had dis­cov­ered that the way of Jesus can­not be lived alone (Acts 2:42-47). Liv­ing in com­mu­nity is part of our being cre­ated in the image of God. When we are con­nect­ed, we thrive. When we are dis­con­nect­ed, we wither (John 15:1-11).

In com­mu­ni­ty, you find out who you really are in Christ through the lov­ing voices of those who know you best. Gifts, tal­ents, and pas­sions get called out that you never knew you had (Eph­esians 4:11, 1st Cor. 12:7-11, Romans 12:6-8). Com­mu­nity rejoices with you at your high points and car­ries you when you are down (Ro­mans 12:15). Your spir­i­tual blind spots get cov­ered by friends who want the best for you and lead­ers called to over­see you. It is in Christ we find out who we are and what we are made for, but it is often in com­mu­nity where this gets called out and con­firmed. Sure, it’s messy. It means you have to be self­less instead of self­ish, and there is the pos­si­bil­ity that you could get burned. But out­side of com­mu­ni­ty, we dry up. We sin. We fall short. The lone ranger can only go so far by him­self. But in com­mu­ni­ty? We expe­ri­ence power and grace that can­not be acquired on our own. You need other believ­ers in your life!

Though the Bible does not give a spe­cific def­i­n­i­tion of spir­i­tual gifts, we do get a sense of their nature and pur­pose. Spir­i­tual gifts, or charis­mata in Greek, refer to God-­given super­nat­ural abil­i­ties given to fol­low­ers of Jesus by the Holy Spirit for the build­ing up of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:7) and for evan­ge­lis­tic pur­poses (1 Cor. 2:4). Some gifts are super­nat­ural abil­i­ties, such as mir­a­cles, heal­ing, prophecy or tongues. Other gifts, such as teach­ing or admin­is­tra­tion are God-­given abil­i­ties to per­form a par­tic­u­lar role for God’s pur­pos­es. (While unbe­liev­ers may have sim­i­lar gifts such as teach­ing, they vary because they are not under the guid­ance and the direc­tion of the Holy Spir­it.)

All believ­ers are endowed with a spir­i­tual gift(s) that God uses for His glory and pur­poses and is a way to empower believ­ers to help bring heaven to earth as co-labors with Christ. One of the best ways to fig­ure out your spir­i­tual gifts is to ask the faith com­mu­nity around you to help you dis­cover your gifts by ask­ing them what they see in you in regards to gift­ings. Min­istry and the results of that min­istry are also strong indi­ca­tors of the gift(s) within you, although the Lord can move in any spir­i­tual gift through any­one He desires at any given time!

Humil­ity is defined as hav­ing a mod­est or low view of one’s own impor­tance. The Bible tells us to value oth­ers above our­selves, look­ing to the inter­est of oth­ers instead of our own inter­ests (Phil 2:3-4). Not seat­ing your­self in the best seat, but in humil­i­ty, plac­ing your­self in the last seat. Humil­ity does not always seem appeal­ing, and it may be seen as a weak­ness; but the word of God says the oppo­site. You will be held in high regard after you first hum­ble your­self! Remem­ber pride is about our glo­ry. Humil­ity is about God’s glo­ry.

It is only in this par­a­digm of humil­ity that we can truly receive cor­rec­tion and become teach­able. We have to under­stand that we alone, apart from the body of Christ, do not have all the answers or the wis­dom to be and do God has called us to. We must be able to learn from oth­ers with recep­tive humil­i­ty. This type of approach to life and com­mu­nity can only func­tion in the con­text of humil­ity and teach­a­bil­i­ty.

For­give­ness, though easy to accept, cost Jesus the agony of the cross. The only way for God to for­give our sins was through Christ’s sac­ri­fice. God’s great love for us led him to his death (Ro­mans 5:8). A deep under­stand­ing of the cost of our free­dom enables us to for­give oth­ers their smaller debts. In the para­ble of the unfor­giv­ing ser­vant in Matthew 18, the mas­ter for­gave the great debt of his ser­vant; a debt equiv­a­lent to a life’s salary. Nev­er­the­less, when another owed the for­given ser­vant only a day’s wage, the for­given ser­vant reacted in anger and venge­ful­ness. This ser­vant did­n’t truly under­stand the cost the mas­ter paid to for­give him. Fail­ing to for­give your brother or sis­ter will change you. Bit­ter­ness and resent­ment are like poi­son, which is a much greater cost than for­give­ness demands. We are called to put aside all mal­ice, anger, and bit­ter­ness, and to for­give as Christ has for­given us (Eph­esians 4:31-32).­

F­orgi­veness is a daily prac­tice, it isn’t just for the “big” sins against you. But we are to for­give our debtors as Christ has for­given our debts each and every day (Matthew 6:12). For­giv­ing another or your­self does­n’t have a lim­it. Jesus told Peter that for­give­ness applies to count­less offenses and even end­lessly repeated offenses (Matthew 18:21-22). For­give­ness is not easy and is chal­leng­ing, but God is able to help through the move of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We need to only ask for His guid­ance!

Arguably the biggest deci­sion you will ever make out­side of fol­low­ing Jesus is who you are going to mar­ry. The rela­tion­ship lead­ing up to mar­riage is also an extremely impor­tant piece to that deci­sion. Mar­riage (and dat­ing and engage­ment) is seri­ous to God. He is less con­cerned about legal­is­tic rules and more con­cerned about wis­dom, which is needed in any dat­ing rela­tion­ship or engage­ment. Wis­dom calls for those who are dat­ing or engaged to have old­er, wiser ones in their life to help make sound deci­sions and hold them account­able. Wis­dom calls for the mil­i­tant pur­suit of puri­ty, know­ing that worldly dat­ing is about per­sonal grat­i­fi­ca­tion while godly dat­ing is about hon­or­ing Christ and know­ing Him more. Wis­dom calls for the pur­suit of being the right per­son before wor­ry­ing about find­ing the right per­son­.

The Bible uses a lot of Bride/Bride­groom imagery. Dat­ing rela­tion­ships and engage­ment reveal a part of God’s heart for us. They have tremen­dous capac­ity to draw us closer to Him if we max­i­mize it.­

C­onver­sely, you make deci­sions dif­fer­ently when you ‘re only pur­su­ing your plea­sure and when you ask ques­tions like, “How will this ben­e­fit me? Can this per­son meet MY needs? Does this per­son look how I want them to? What do they have to offer? How far is too far?” The right ques­tions are instead “What is wise? What is going to bring honor to God and to the per­son I am dat­ing? What do those in author­ity and who I respect in my life think about this per­son and this rela­tion­ship?”

While there are a lot of items to dis­cuss when it comes to rela­tion­ships, the over­ar­ch­ing pur­pose and focus of dat­ing should be that of pur­su­ing mar­riage and hon­or­ing the Lord in that pur­suit.

Mar­riage is a covenant rela­tion­ship in which a man and a woman are called to be a liv­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Christ and His lov­ing rela­tion­ship with the church. It is one of the most beau­ti­ful and ful­fill­ing yet most dif­fi­cult rela­tion­ships you can be a part of because it demands the daily embod­i­ment of the Gospel with and for another per­son. Mar­riage is built upon the depen­dency on God for strength to con­tinue to become more like Him, embody His lov­ing sac­ri­fice, and con­tinue in the char­ac­ter of Christ so that can be reflected and received by your part­ner on a daily basis.­

Many peo­ple have a skewed view of mar­riage as being a rela­tion­ship that is based exclu­sively on sex­ual attrac­tion, finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty, or that mar­riage is there to meet their needs and make them hap­py. A Bibil­cal mar­riage is based on the lov­ing sac­ri­fice of Jesus played out in both spous­es’ desire and wil­ing­ness to serve one another and the glory of God in those acts of love and ser­vice. It is less about your hap­pi­ness, more about your holi­ness, and ulti­mately about God’s glo­ry.

Par­ent­ing is one of the most dif­fi­cult and most reward­ing rela­tion­ships we will ever have. The depth of uncon­di­tional love that par­ents have for their chil­dren is unpar­al­leled. The chal­lenge of stew­ard­ing the gift of chil­dren is equally unpar­al­leled! But below are a few things that we can do as par­ents to help our chil­dren see and expe­ri­ence the love of Jesus that leads to real faith in Christ.

As par­ents, we our­selves need to be liv­ing out our faith. Under­stand and live out your faith, immerse your­self in the habit abid­ing with Jesus dai­ly, and be a part of real, authen­tic Chris­tian com­mu­ni­ty. Model this for your chil­dren. But don’t for­get the joy of the Lord! Let them see how much He fills your life with His joy­ful pres­ence (Psalm 16:11). Lead them in rev­el­ing in awe and won­der at who He is and His cre­ation (Psalm 150). Wor­ship, dance, joy­fully pray, and sing with your chil­dren (Psalm 149). Share the Gospel with your chil­dren in a vari­ety of ways. Ensure that their faith has strong roots by pre­sent­ing the Gospel all the time (Ro­mans 10:14). Don’t waste a moment to lift their eyes to the won­der, majesty, and joy of fol­low­ing Jesus. Your pas­sion, joy, and love for Jesus will make a last­ing impres­sion on your chil­dren.

C­ul­tivate an envi­ron­ment where they can become who Christ has called them to be even if that looks dif­fer­ent than you. Let Jesus shape and mold them as you con­stantly call to them to fol­low you as you fol­low Christ (1 Cor. 11:1).

In an age where diver­sity seems to be a sec­u­lar­ized weapon, the church needs to recap­ture the Bib­li­cal truth and call of unit­ing under the ban­ner of Jesus Christ. Diver­sity is not a polit­i­cal or work­place mantra; it is the vision of Jesus Him­self. He desires to see every tribe and every tongue pro­claim­ing His Lord­ship side by side, in love and uni­ty.­

­Div­ersity is not easy. It is not nat­u­ral. But it is glo­ri­ous when it occurs. Because we have been given the min­istry of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, we are to reg­u­larly com­mu­ni­cate the call to live out of unity in diver­si­ty. We recog­nize and ver­bal­ize the truth that the King­dom pre­sented in Scrip­ture is made up of a very diverse group. Mul­ti­-ra­cial, mul­ti­-eth­nic, mul­ti­-­na­tion­al, mul­ti­-lin­gual, mul­ti­-­gen­er­a­tional. The greater the diver­si­ty, the greater the abil­ity to man­i­fest this king­dom on earth as it is in heav­en. It is like a sign and a won­der in the hands of God. It is also a tool through which God reveals parts of His king­dom that do not man­i­fest through one cul­ture or per­spec­tive alone.

We do not call peo­ple to cease being who they are. We do not com­mand peo­ple to give up their cul­ture to be like another earthly cul­ture; we call them to sub­mit their cul­ture to the king­dom of Jesus. We resist the temp­ta­tion to lean polit­i­cally left or right, under­stand­ing that each per­spec­tive comes with both insights and blind spots. We admit the temp­ta­tion to believe that “they” are all the same, but “we” are unique. We recog­nize that all dark peo­ple, light peo­ple, east­ern peo­ple, west­ern peo­ple, old peo­ple, and young peo­ple do not think the same. We can­not approx­i­mate their view­point. There is a diver­sity and full­ness even among cul­tur­ally sim­i­lar peo­ple. Ulti­mately we real­ize the temp­ta­tion to exag­ger­ate our dif­fer­ences and ignore our com­mon­al­i­ties. And here is our com­mon­al­i­ty: Jesus. We adore and seek and expe­ri­ence Jesus. Togeth­er.