A community requires commitment. It takes God’s power and our effort to produce a loving Christian community. If you’re tired of fake fellowship and you would like to cultivate real fellowship and a loving community in your cell group and church, you will need to make some though choices and risks.
Cultivating community takes honesty. You will have to care enough to lovingly speak the truth, even when you would rather gloss over a problem or ignore an issue. Whole it much easier to remain silent when others around us are harming themselves or others with a sinful pattern it is not the loving thing to do. When everyone knows about the problem, but no one talks about it openly, this creates a sick environment of secrets where gossip thrives. As conflicts handled correctly, we grow closer to each other. The Bible says, “In the end, people appreciate frankness more than flattery.”
Cultivating community takes humility. Self-importance, smugness, and stubborn pride destroy fellowship faster than anything else. Pride builds walls between people; humility builds relationship. Humility is the oil that smoothes and soothes relationship. You can develop humility in very practical ways: by admitting your weaknesses, by being patient with others’ weaknesses, by being open to correction, and by pointing the spotlight on others. Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others.
Giving up our self centeredness and independence in order to become interdependent. The benefit of sharing life together far outweigh the costs, and it prepares us for heaven.
