David Ralph

Community

Today was the first day of the “Partnering to Prevail” conference at Willow Creek. It was a day interacting and conversing with church leaders all over the world. There were church leaders from Australia, England, South Africa, Nigeria, Germany, Brazil and of course Canada. There was a variety of accents spoken, some English not as good as others. There were men and women of different colours from a variety of different churches. As I was sitting there I thought about those verses in Revelation that talk about people from every tribe and language gathering together in one single community. No matter our differences we are united in our relationship with Jesus and our spiritual brothers and sisters. The theme today was all about community and we spent all morning listening to the teaching of Scott McKnight. Scott is a college/seminary professor in the Chicago area. He has written a couple of books.  Scott’s teaching today was all about the idea of community. He spent the first part talking about how we must read the Bible through the eyes of community and resist the temptation to read it from an individualistic standpoint. It is not that there aren’t personal applications but the communal aspect can’t be lost in the reading. The second part of the talk was about the theme of community threaded throughout the Bible. He said something that really caught my attention. He said, “that you can’t be a follower of Jesus and not be a part of a church community because redemption and community are completely connected in the Bible.” I am still pondering this statement and will share my comments in another blog. But it really made me think. I hear Christians say that they can be Christians without connecting to a local church community. I wonder who is right.   The rest of the day was listening to talks on church administration and operations and community care through the local church. As I listened to what Willow Creek is doing in these areas I realized how well we are doing at Lakeside as we are doing many of the things that they are doing – only on a smaller scale. As the day wrapped up I realized how great of a community Lakeside is and how great the people are who make up that community. That is the thoughts that will linger in my mind as I drift off to sleep. I love the local church which I believe is central to bringing the hope and healing of Jesus to the world that it is looking for. I love Lakeside as an expression of that local church.