FollowThis Sunday, Elim will host its first Small Group Fair. We will profile all the small group opportunities available during this season. However, regardless of the small group you choose to belong to, the experience will (and should) challenge you. Our goal is to “walk in the light,” as John writes in 1 John 1. What does this mean for community? Bob Thune and Will Walker wrote in their article “How to Get Real, Honest Community,” “If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. We have true community. We have real relationship. We’re finished pretending, hiding, covering up. You know the real me, and I know the real you. And that’s a good recipe for true friendship.” I encourage you to click this link and read the full article, because I believe it will introduce us to the challenge and freedom of genuine community we long to see embraced at Elim.
Come to Elim this Sunday, October 5, and find a way for you to be a unique part of our community.
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I read the article by Mr. Thune and I agree with him that only when we’ve come to Jesus in repentance and faith will we experience the kind of community you are talking about. I’m not sure that kind of group can be achieved in a mixed congregation of seekers, newborn, and mature Christians who are at various places in their understanding, growth, and sanctification. That sounds like what heaven will be like. It is natural to be ashamed of ones own sin, and it is right to take it to God (whom we should fear) to get it resolved (Thune). I’m not sure how community helps me get there, or what this kind of group actually looks like as you envision it. Bible study can and should be a means to teach what God expects us to do when we sin, and it is full of examples of success and failure in doing that. In the Bible study that I attend with Tom, Willie, and others we get into these issues and it is helpful to know God’s mind as He dealt with Israel, as one example. I’m not sure resolving sin issues in community is the right place to go if they are ultimately resolved before God. God already knows our “backstage” thoughts and struggles, and it is through His Spirit that they are conquered on the inside so that we can be honest and joyful on the outside. Am I naïve, old school, or something else? Perhaps different personalities require different means to solve issues with sin. Let me know what you think about these ideas sometime. God bless!