Quotes About Community

Sometimes God comforts us directly, but that's not His only strategy. Normally He comforts us through His people—so if our lives aren't open to one another, they're closed to the Father's comfort. Let's share our lives; let's fellowship in suffering so that we can fellowship in His mercy.

Is the Black Church Dead? Or, Can These Bones Live?

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34–35)

The reason the apostles preached the message of Jesus Christ was not for individual conversion alone. The apostles did not preach so that there simply would be a new me, but so that there would be a new we.

A committed church member is committed to the maintenance of peace in the congregation. "Let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding" (Rom. 14:19). "And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (James 3:18).

The one consistent purpose or goal of the public meeting of the church is mutual edification, building each other up in the faith (1 Cor. 12, 14; Eph. 4:11–16). A healthy and committed member comes to serve, not to be served, like Jesus (Mark 10:45); to provide, not to be a consumer only.

This is discussed at greater length in chapter 6, "Seeks Discipline." A committed member is committed to speaking the truth in love to his brothers and sisters, to helping them avoid pitfalls, and to encouraging them in holiness and Christian joy. A committed member will not be wrongly intrusive in the lives of others—a busybody—but he also will not be "hands off" when it comes to caring for and counseling others.

Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living in common Christian life with other Christians praise God's grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.3 Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

Whether your Christian life began yesterday or thirty years ago, the Lord's intent is that you play an active and vital part in his body, the local church. He intends for you to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth. He intends for his churches to be healthy places and for the members of those churches to be healthy as well.

The health of the local church depends on the willingness of its members to inspect their hearts, correct their thinking, and apply their hands to the work of the ministry.

Many people appear to live without genuine affection or concern for other Christians. They think of the Christian walk as a "solo sport." However, "everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him" (1 John 5:1).

John teaches that the commandment is to believe in the name of Jesus Christ and to love one another. If our love of other Christians is cold, we need to examine whether or not we have savingly believed on Christ Jesus the Son of God.

Not only do healthy church members accept the Lord's chastisement, but they humbly accept correction from others. They recognize that often the Lord's correction comes through other members in the church, saints who care enough not only to encourage in good times but to confront and correct when necessary. Healthy church members agree that "better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Prov. 27:5–6).

Many of our own people here in this country do not ask about computers, telephones and television sets. They ask - when will we get a road to our village.

Music isn't music unless we share it with others," she told me, but even then that sentiment seemed unsatisfactory to me.

Save the world, not your money

We are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other.

Do you inquire why, holding these views and possessing some will of my own, i accept so imperfect a proposition? I answer, because I live among men and not among angels.

One of the pleasures of being a gardener comes from the enjoyment you get looking at other people's yards.

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?

I get by with a little help from my friends

Check on your strong friends.

Surround yourself with more positive people.

Tell me why my freshman year at Paloma was probably the most memorable year out of all them because everyone was actually excited to go to football games and go all out for spirt weeks and all that.