When you read historical accounts of Jesus in the Gospels, do you notice how many of them he is out with people? He is walking around the market places. He is along the Sea of Galilee. (I wonder if Jesus ever went swimming.) He was in the temple. He went were people worked, played and worshiped.
Jesus told us to do the things he did. So we take our faith in him were we go. We reach out to our community. We don't want to be tied to our Sunday service, we want to get out of the building, to be the hands and feet of our leader.
One of the things we do on a monthly basis is serve a hot meal to our homeless population at the Lawrence Community Shelter. Currently, we do this every fourth Thursday at 8pm. It is really cool. We find the guests genuinely appreciate the meal. They are not the only ones that benefit from it though. God created us to serve. By serving others, we fulfill some of our own longings to have significance. We benefit just as much, if not more, than the guests we serve.
As we continue this journey with God, we have discovered how much God cares about creation. Unfortunately we don't have such a good track record of following through with it. In the poetic account of creation in Genesis 1 [1], we see that God calls what he made good. Do you ever stop and become amazed at the mountains, the prairies, the forests, the deserts, just all of creation? It is good!
Our concern about the environment is increasing. August 4, 2007 we had our first community clean up event, 'Keep It Clean!'. We cleaned up the trash at Centennial Park, the disc golf course / skate park between Sixth and Ninth Streets behind The Merc! grocery store and next to Bucky's fast food. Why clean up a park? We are doing what we can, where we can. By taking care of what we have here it creates a desire within us and increases our awareness of environmental issues everywhere, but especially here in our own community.
We are working on additional ideas on how to take care of the environment locally. If you have any you want to share, let us know.
Besides taking time to be in the public community, Jesus spent a great amount of time in the community of his friends. While in this community, his friends were able to ask him questions about the things he taught but they didn't understand. It was also during these times that Jesus communicated to them how much he loved them. Besides serving the public community, he served this closer circle of friends too.
Church really is a community of believers. It's not the building and it's not the service. It is the people. Community building happens when we serve, such as the shelter meals and the park cleanups, but it also happens when we get together during the mid-week groups and the BBQ parties on Saturday night. Check out the information on our mid-week groups under the ministries section.
Jesus was also in community when he was alone. Jesus is in community as part of the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit). Genesis 1:26 [2] says, 'Let us make man in our image'. Why does it say our? Because God is community. Not only is God community, but he created us for community.
When Jesus was tired and worn out, he retreated to solitude places to have time alone. But he wasn't really completely alone, he communicated with God the Father. This communication rejuvenated him to continue with the work.
When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed to God the Father. During this time, knowing crucifixion was coming, he committed to following through with it. This commitment came after speaking with the Father.
The only time Jesus was alone was when he was on the cross. He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus was in community with the Father from before creation, and it was now, for the first time that he experienced true loneliness.
Why? So we wouldn't have to experience eternal loneliness. By taking the punishment for our wrong doings, Jesus made it possible for us to have an eternal relationship with God.
Do you have very many relationships that last 10 years? How about 20, 30, 40? We occasionally hear about a marriage that lasts 50 years, and it's hard to grasp how it could last that long. What about an eternal relationship? Well, most of us are not even close to 50, but what we have found out that our relationship with God is awesome. He's like no other friend I have ever had. We want to serve him like serving nothing else because of how much he values us.
If you want to know what this type of community is, this type of relationship is, come and find out. All of us at Vineyard Church are learning and walking and building our relationship with God. We would love to have you come along with us on this journey.