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Living Life in CommunityWe think living life in community is the only way to live life. Doing life with others helps us to connect in community, focus on others, and establish meaningful relationships.
Jesus had a team He "did life" with. He ate with them, walked with them, and ministered with them. He developed meaningful relationships with them and developed a strategy through which all humankind could be reconciled. Why is it that modern-day Christians have such a hard time doing anything other than going to a church service?
The early church connected in very natural, organic ways: "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts" (Acts 2:46 NIV). They loved to eat a good meal together, laugh together, and pray together in one another's homes as well as in their large temple gatherings.
Here at Bethel Worship Center, we have developed "communities" that exist within
our larger congregation: women, men, couples, young adults, youth, and
children. Within this context, small groups meet weekly in homes, coffee
shops, or wherever they can gather. In these small groups, the focus is
on worship, fellowship, teaching, serving, and outreach.
This is the care and attention that we should give to every new believer in order to reproduce in him the character of Christ with the aim that he fulfills the purpose of God for his life- which is to bear fruit that endures (John 15:16). The consolidation process was a practice of the early church. "Strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God." (Acts 14:22) The purpose of consolidation is to take special care of the new believer so that he will not be discouraged or have any reason to backslide.