Community.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, "The person who's in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go."

I am blessed to be a part of a great body of believers in the Lynchburg area. We meet downtown in a building on Kemper Street called One Community Center. We sing really moving, meaningful songs led by really talented passionate musicians. We don't have A/C or heat so we get to say we are suffering for Jesus. We have a coffee shop, dance studio and bike/board shop in our building so we are really relevant. We serve coffee and tea on Sunday mornings because its good. We have a wonderful pastor who hears from God and teaches us things that convict our hearts and move us to action. Altogether it's pretty great. The vision of our church, you ask? "Love God, Love People."

I know, I know. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times. It has truly become the mantra of the emerging church. The motto of our generation of Christians. It basically sums up what Jesus said are the two greatest commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might and love your neighbor as yourself." It sounds great. It is great. But it's becoming one of those phrases grouped together with so many other words and phrases that the modern church is becoming obsessed with and the reality behind them is becoming lost.

Community is becoming a thing that people are talking about and realizing the importance of. If I have to say, I truly believe that next to our relationship with Christ, fostering community is one of, if not the, most important thing we can do. The early Christians in Acts and throughout the New Testament taught us what a beautiful and amazing concept community is. Loving and serving other people. Helping each other survive, both physically and spiritually. We need it. God made us to need it. And for the longest time, the reality of community has been lost in American society.

The idea of success and hard work and climbing the corporate ladder in order to make the most money possible is so engrained into our minds and hearts. Our culture teaches us to look out for ourselves and put our own needs and desires at the forefront of our dreams. And we are taught this is a good thing.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe if having a good work ethic. I believe that "a workman should be worthy of his pay" as the Scripture teaches. But I don't believe that financial and physical success is why we live life. It isn't the legacy that we should be striving to leave behind. The legacy we should be leaving is one of loving people. Truly loving them with every ounce of our lives. Sacrificing our money and time for others should be a joy rather than a burden that we feel obligated to. Our resources are not our own, but rather they are entrusted to us by God to use in a way that brings glory to him.

So community is important. But as I quoted Bonhoeffer in saying, the idea of community can destroy community. We can't be so caught up in the idea and how its supposed to look or make us feel, but simply we must be intentional about loving people each day, nurturing relationships. We must drive away the cynicism that creeps in telling us that people don't really love us back--that they are going to disappoint us (because they will) because that's not the reason that we do this. We love because it's our highest calling. The greatest ability given to us by God and the strongest force in all the universe.