Community

Imagine we were sitting down at a local coffee shop, getting to know each other for the first time. As I sip my coffee with steamed oat milk, I begin to share about my family, my wife Brittany, and our four kids. I start by talking about how much I love my wife and how we met, but before I can finish, someone overhearing our conversation gets agitated and comes over and starts to accuse me of hating my children. Confused, I reply, “How did you come to that conclusion?” They respond, “Because you kept talking about your wife and never said anything about your kids!”  I know what you’re probably thinking right now. This is absurd. How could someone make that assumption? While this is an exaggerated example, it highlights the cultural context we find ourselves in—an age of polarization. Polarization can be defined as “the act of dividing something, especially something that contains different people or opinions, into two completely opposing groups.” The outcome of polarization is division. We have truly found ourselves in an age of polarization, and this does not exclude the household of God. Polarization is taking place on the public forums of Instagram, TikTok, CNN, and Fox. You may have even found yourself engulfed in a fierce debate on a Facebook post. It’s even happening around the dinner table when families come together to celebrate holidays. What is creating this polarization? Take your pick from politics, issues of justice, questions and concerns about gender, and the list goes on and on. We’re left wondering if there is a way to overcome the disunity of polarization and experience unity amid a diversity of opinions and views.  The good news is that the Bible has an answer for this. It requires us to reclaim an ancient virtue that was foundational to the Christian life and has been severely neglected today: the virtue of humility.  In an age of polarization that divides, Christ-like humility has the power to unite.  The initial response to humility may range from skepticism to flat-out rejection. In fact, this was likely how the first-century church viewed humility within a Greco-Roman cultural context. One of the prominent Greek words we translate as “humble” (tapeinophrosynē) could also be translated as “self-abasement” or “lowliness.” In Greek, there are words that are related to each other that convey the concept of humility, and this type of thing is referred to as “word groups.”  Markus Barth, a renowned Swiss New Testament scholar who lived during the second half of the 1900s, shared this insight about the humility word group, “The entire word group which belongs with tapeinophrosynē, according to its usage in common Greek, is used in a negative sense and means a low slavish orientation.” The culture at the time of the first-century church was highly competitive and focused on self-exaltation (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). So anyone who had a low social status, who was weak or lowly, was considered “humble,” and it almost always had a negative connotation.  Given this cultural climate, imagine how shocking and disruptive it was when Paul told the church in Rome, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble [tapeinos]. Do not be wise in your own estimation” (Romans 12:16). There had to have been some jaws on the floor. I can picture people sliding out the door of that house church thinking, These people have lost their minds. Ain’t nobody got time for dat. This isn’t the only time Paul said something like this. It was a consistent theme throughout his letters—he taught it to the churches in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae. When we came into Macedonia, we had no rest. Instead, we were troubled in every way: conflicts on the outside, fears within. But God, who comforts the downcast [tapeinos], comforted us by the arrival of Titus.2 Corinthians 7:5–6 I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility [tapeinophrosynē] and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.Ephesians 4:1–3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility [tapeinophrosynē] consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.Philippians 2:3–4 As God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility [tapeinophrosynē], gentleness, and patience.Colossians 3:12 He will transform the body of our humble [tapeinōseōs] condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.Philippians 3:21 Why would the apostle Paul call the church back then and today into a life of humility? Because it was humility that Jesus Himself modeled for us in the incarnation and exemplified on the cross. It was the invitation of the humble Christ that moved an ancient society polarized and disunified into unity within the family of God (Ephesians 2:18-22). The payoff of Christ-like humility is a type of resilience that isn’t dependent on our ability but finds its power in the infinite ability of Jesus. The more we look to Christ, the more we fight against the polarizing way of the world as we become conformed to the likeness of Jesus. This is the power of humility in a polarized world. Humility is simply a three-part movement, and the order matters.  First, Humility is an awareness of God. Second, If we know who God is, we can know who we are. Third, if we are fully aware of God and ourselves, we will be equipped to rightly relate to others. Humility moves us away from the disunity that comes with self-absorption and into the unity that is possible only with self-awareness. When this happens, we can recognize the extremes within our culture that polarize us into divisive positions at odds with one another. With the self-awareness of humility, we can learn to find common ground. In areas where we remain in disagreement, we can still learn to honor, cherish, and respect the image of God within those we are at odds with. For the Christian, this means humility teaches us how to be: Confident in our convictions.Compassionate in our communication.Committed to the Kingdom of Christ above all else. We stand against our society’s polarization by modeling our unity around Christ, even in the midst of disagreement. We find ourselves prompted into a posture of compassion even in the midst of various disagreements.  And above all, we are reminded that we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of God.  In a culture full of polarization leading to separation and division, reclaiming the ancient virtue of humility can lead us into unification as we remember who we are, whose we are, and how we are to live in the world as a winsome witness of Christ and His coming Kingdom.        To learn more about the ancient virtue of humility check out Dr. Joel’s book, Hidden Peace: Finding True Security, Strength, and Confidence Through Humility

Camilo Buchanan reminds us that when we know whose we are, we can then know who and why we are, and we can live out our purpose of proclaiming His name to a broken and lost people.

This talk from Dan Watson focuses on the importance of community in the Church. Brick by brick, we can be used to build something for the Kingdom with Christ as our cornerstone.

Heath Hatmaker examines the differences between Christlike love and counterfeit love through this study of John 13.

Grant Partrick breaks down Hebrews 10:23-25, emphasizing the call for believers to draw near to Him, trust His promises for our lives, and link arms with one another by committing, planting, and rooting ourselves in and among a group of people with the purpose of love and good deeds in us.

As our Disciple series continues, Ben Stuart emphasizes the importance of community and why God desires us to be in it.

This is an excerpt from Jennie Allen’s book, Untangle Your Emotions.  Have you ever sat down with someone for coffee or lunch and that person started sharing what was really going on in their life, maybe even getting teary about it? How do you feel in that moment? Sure, there might be a moment or two of awkwardness, but beneath the uncertainty of what to say or do, what is it that you feel? I bet you feel compassion. Affection. Grateful, even, that they shared their life with you. You feel connected to them, even if you don’t know them all that well. That’s what emotions are meant to do: connect us to what is most important. And to who is most important. Our emotions have a purpose, and that purpose is to connect us to God and one another. Everything that God has placed inside us is for the purpose of drawing us near to Him, to trust Him. Take away the childlike fear and we lose our childlike inclination to pull close and ask Him for help. Take away excitement at an incredible meal and we lose our awe and wonder at the gifts of God. Take away hope and we never look to heaven. Take away peace and we never rest in God. The truth that sets us free begins with the truth that we are sad or hurting and desperately and urgently need help. There is no hope for health, joy, peace, and salvation apart from Jesus, the One who is all and has done all for us. He died on the cross for our sins. He was raised to new life again. He offers us grace and forgiveness and an eternity spent with Him. That’s it. That’s the gospel. The Bible is clear that the truth of that sets us free:  Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31-32) Certainly, Jesus is speaking of Himself in this verse: the truth of who He is as the means and the way of salvation. The ultimate freedom we need is to be freed from the eternal consequences of our sin. And right now, that is available to you if you trust Jesus as the only means for salvation. But it doesn’t stop there. The Bible is filled with stories of people who worked out that hope and truth and freedom with their emotions, with how they felt. Paul hated Christians, was murdering them, until Christ met him and rescued him. That extreme emotion turned to impassioned grace and fervor to reach the world with the hope of Jesus. (1 Corinthians 2:9-11) King David poured out his guts throughout the book of Psalms. The songs of lament are the most emotive, raw, messy parts of the Bible. He’s mad at God. He’s sad with God. He has given up and lost all hope, and then, in his honesty with God and himself and others who are listening, he comes back to all that he knows to be good and true of God. The beauty of David and the Psalms is the permission to feel it all. David had full confidence that God could handle all his emotions, even the ones that caused him to doubt that God is good and that God still loves him. He sees injustice go unpunished and he’s ticked! He feels safe enough with God to wrestle it all out! Do you? THE TRUTH? It is freeing. It’s freeing when we tell the truth! But we can’t get that done without admitting how we feel, without confessing what our lived experience is. We can confess sin. We can share our pain. We can confide our fears. We can cry through gut-wrenching grief. We get to express what we’re thinking as long as we express what we’re feeling too. Tell God and trusted loved ones all these things so that you can finally live fully free, connected to one another by the rope of emotion. If, as you’re reading these words, you’re feeling paralyzed by sadness, anger, grief, or disappointment, I want you to know something: Given everything we are presented with in this lovely world of ours, its amazing to me that you don’t feel more than what you’re feeling right now. That’s the first thing I would say, were we seated across from each other, face-to-face. We know that emotions are all-encompassing. They make you ecstatic when you see your kids succeed on their own and take their first steps. They make you feel sick to your stomach when you’re nervous and scared. They make you feel your chest get tight when you’re reminded that the future is beyond your control. They make you anxious when you fall in love and aren’t sure the other person feels the same way. They make you cry when you see pain and suffering and can’t fix it in your life or in the world. Something about emotions is connected to our thoughts, but equally true is that they’re also different somehow. Maybe you feel like you are staring at an ocean of emotions, wondering how you could ever get across. It’s too big. All the hope and grief, joy and anxiety, unshakable memories both good and painful. How on earth do you cross? And then closing in behind you is life, the constant reality of the people needing to eat, the assignments that are due, the places you need to be. How am I supposed to deal with this ocean? Do I even want to do this right now? I’m here to remind you that you are not standing on that shore alone. The same God who accompanied the Israelites as they stared at the water in front of them, knowing the Egyptians were closing in from behind, and the same God who split the sea— He split the sea! —that God is near. He’s right there beside you. He can do a miracle here.     Adapted from Untangle Your Emotions: Naming What You Feel and Knowing What to Do About It. Copyright © 2024 by Jennie Allen. Published by WaterBrook, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC. To grab your copy of Jennie Allen’s Untangle Your Emotions, click here.

Have you felt this growing trend in today’s world toward a culture of isolation and loneliness? Jacob Harkey teaches us how community in Christ is the antidote as we cultivate the kind of authentic relationships we all desire.

As we navigate life in a technology-centric world, it can often be difficult to find formative friendships and live in intentional community with other believers. In this talk, Ben Stuart shares the biblical definition of community and gives us practical steps to find it in our lives today.

In this talk, Mikado Hinson, the Director of Player Development at Texas A&M, joined us to kick off the series: The Beauty of Belonging. He cautions us against the thorns of isolation and encourages us to live our lives in the way God intended— in connection with Him and His people.

Does the brokenness of your city do anything to your heart? Grant Partrick encourages us to ask God to soften our hearts for the community around us and to pray boldly for them.

Louie Giglio looks to the Gospels to illustrate how we can adopt a spiritual discipline that paves the way for heavenly impact.