Followby Brian Sharpe
I would hope as believers our hearts desire would be to grow in our relationship with Jesus. I would hope that we would say specifically that our relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship we have. When we look at the Bible both of these statements are at the forefront of the minds of the authors. Their lives were all about Jesus and growing in that relationship. They gave up jobs. They gave up positions of leadership. It cost a lot of them their life, but nothing else mattered.
Since 1999 I have been working with students to help them grow in their faith. Over the years I have found that weekend and week long trips are one of the best ways to help a group grow both personally and corporately. The question I ask is why? Why do we see more growth on these short trips together than any other time?
I believe that when you live in community with the same goal of growth and service to God you will grow. That is what I saw a couple weeks ago in Rockaway. You had a group of students and adults that were there to serve God and grow in their relationship with Jesus. As a group we processed life and faith every night both individually and corporately. It was amazing to see God show up. It was amazing to see God break down barriers. It was amazing to see God visibly change students.
Is this possible in the large church? Do we have to be on a trip together as adults to grow personally and corporately? I think it would help, but it is not practical. I think what needs to happen is that we make sure we intentionally find people that we can grow together with and not be willing to keep the status-quo. It is where you and this group are willing to ask tough questions and would be willing to pray for and walk with each other. To me this sounds a lot like our community groups.
Community groups are our adult small groups. It is where we meet either every or every-other week. We pray together. We study the word together and we talk life together. It is where we get together to serve God and grow in our relationship with him. If you are not in a community group make sure to make it a priority this fall. If we are not living in community with other believers it will stunt our growth in Christ. God has created us as relational people. We need to seek out others to grow with. We need to seek out and be in community. We need to be in a community group.
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