Do You Need Community?
One of our core values is “Community.” We believe that our lives were meant to be lived together, in community, and not as fragmented individuals who come together on Sunday to worship. It’s a cool idea. Most of us would love some people in our lives to make it more colorful and to help us out when we need it. But is it really necessary, to the point of being a core value of our church?
Community in the Trinity
The community within the three persons of the Trinity gave birth to the community among human relationships. The Bible paints a picture of our God always existing in community; the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Our God exists in community, and he created us to reflect him in that way. It is necessary for our God to exist in community, because that is, in fact, how he exists. And because we were created to reflect him in all of creation, we were created as relational beings to be in community.
Community in Our Design
Genesis 1 says God “created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” If we’re not in community, we’re not reflecting the image of God. God said it himself in Genesis 2: “It is not good that the man should be alone.” Which was the first thing he created that wasn’t good. The light? Good. The earth? Good. Living creatures? Good. Man by himself? Not good yet. So God created a women. Then the creation of humanity was good, because humanity existed in community. We were created for community.
Community by Command
We could look at many places in the Bible where the command to be in community is explicit and where it’s implicit. In 1 Peter 3:8-9 Peter is speaking to everyone in the churches he is writing to and he tells them, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you might obtain a blessing.” This is really a command for us to love each other well. And we simply can’t fulfill this command if we are isolated from each other.
The way we build our relational identities at Harbor is through community groups. These are the heartbeat of our church, where most of the ministry actually takes place. Community groups are where people are encouraged, nurtured, cared for, and challenged the most. They meet on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. Check out the link below for more info and let us know if you’d like to join us in one of our groups.