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living in community

"Community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives." ~ Henri Nouwen (thanks to @mknisley for the quote
 
 I love our leadership team here at The Community Fellowship.  We met last night, and I taught them some things I learned from this article by Rick Warren.
 
One of the topics we covered was about community.  God intends for us to live in community, to do life together and to learn from one another.  Think about it.  Are we cutting ourselves off from others?  Or are we allowing people to interact and be part of our every day lives.
 
Here is part of what I taught our leaders:
 
Will you demonstrate your commitment to the family of God? There are over 50 "one anothers" in the Bible: Love one another, serve one another, share with one another, etc. Obviously, you cannot practice these "one another" commands by yourself. They must be done in community...A big part of your life mission will be lived out in fellowship with other followers of Christ. The Christian life was never meant to be lived alone.
 
1 Thessalonians 5:11 (nasb) --- Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
 
Some of the people we sit with at church have taken themselves out of community for most of their lives.  It is time that we encourage others to live life, share life and be together.  God never intends for us to be alone.
 
Take a look at the quote I began with.  Yep, some of the people we will be in community with when we start to live out a Christ-like life will be those we would rather not be around.  They grind against us.  They turn us off.  They make us angry.  And do all kinds of things we might not care for.  But these are god's kids, and God called us not only to get along but to share life.  The is community.  And we are learning from each other as we are living in community!

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