Community

Recently, I have been put in charge of overseeing and developing the small group ministry at church. At Hanover Valley, we believe small groups are the "backbone" of the church. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what constitutes biblical community, what that looks like and why that matters for the spreading of God's kingdom. One book that has been a welcomed companion on this journey has been The Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends by Richard Lamb. Though I am only a quarter of the way through the book, what I most appreciate Lamb's assessment of biblical community has come from his experience of being in community. Lamb calls himself a "recovering nerd." He explains how in college he naturally felt awkward about impromptu social situations. In his chapter, on the "Hospitality of God" he points out five elements of a hospitable community:
1. Physical space - a place that is welcoming like a living room or dining room or kitchen to relax and enjoy relationships with one another.
2. Time - Time set aside to encourage relationships
3. Social space - thinking about what would help people be at ease in a social setting.
4. Emotional space - asking appropriate questions in group settings that spark further discussion.
5. Spiritual space - spending time to pray and reflect on people's needs and concerns. So, they might enter into deeper, more authentic relationships with others.

I appreciate Lamb's reflections on hospitality. I feel the major way evangelism and discipleship happens is through befriending and spending significant amounts of time sharing our lives with each other. Not only with people we like or who are in our social or economic class, but those who are different from us. Those whom society deems as outcasts or the forgot of our culture. What would it mean if we purposely pursued those relationships in the name of Jesus?