City On A Hill

Based on Sojourn Community Church

At our most recent Neighborhood leaders meeting, I shared a handout providing a biblical basis for Christians to live in community with each other. Even secular sociologists conclude that we humans are not meant to live in isolation. We were made for each other, to live in relationships. Behind the conclusion that we need to live in relationships with others, God has provided the motivation for us in His Word. The following verses are just a few of the many that lead to understanding that we are CREATED, CALLED, COMFORTED, CHANGED and COMMISSIONED in community with fellow believers.

Created for Community
· 1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Called to Community
· Galatians 4:7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ
· Galatians 6:10 Therefore as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Comforted in Community
· 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any tribulation, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
· Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Changed in Community
· Ephesians 4:15-16 But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Commissioned as Community
· Luke 10:1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

At City on a Hill, we are living out God’s view of community through Neighborhoods. Our experience is that “Lone Ranger” Christians don’t grow the way God desires for them, miss opportunity to serve others and miss opportunity to be served. Don’t be a Lone Ranger Christian – join a Neighborhood and begin experiencing community the way God has designed!

Thanks to Sojourn Community Church, Louisville, KY for providing material underpinning this blog.