What Makes Community Biblical
An after-school chess club or a local choir might qualify as community. A group of neighborhood mothers who meet weekly to share cares and concerns could be called a community. Young adults promoting safer environmental changes could be a community. Communities are people sharing a common place with a common purpose.
For this reason, biblical community is so significant. Christians who gather in community are not just any people, but the chosen people of God—His people. And, our purpose in gathering together is to “declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness and into His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). Biblical community isn’t a social group, a dinner party or a Bible study, though it may include those things. Biblical community is a particular people who belong to God and each other for a particular purpose.
At Central Bible Church, we highlight 7 Functions of Biblical Community.* These are the regular expressions of God’s people living on purpose. Some of these functions are inward, directing the group’s attention to one another. Other functions are outward, directing the group’s attention to those not in their group. We talk about facing our chairs inward to one another and outward to others.
Biblical communities must have both kinds of experiences. If they always “face inward,” they will become self-centered, closed and insensitive to the needs of the world around them. If they always “face outward,” they will neglect the personal needs of the group and eventually become less effective in fulfilling their purpose. The following explains the 7 Functions of Biblical Community with practical examples of how these functions have worked out in various biblical communities.
Inward Functions
Spiritual Formation—Almost everything a group does together has a spiritually formative benefit. However, each community should intentionally devote their attention to activities or disciplines which encourage spiritual growth. This includes Bible study, prayer, worship and the Lord’s Table. This special time encourages spiritual reflection, remembrance and rejoicing in who God is and what He has done.
In the small group community my wife and I attend (called a “home group”), we pray every time we are together and study the Bible or a Christian book about every other week together. Other groups have met for an evening of worship or fasted together.
Recreation—When the early church came together, they ate together with “glad and sincere hearts.” This means they enjoyed being together. Biblical communities are not always serious. They play together, enjoying recreational activities together. This may be as simple as communities eating together when they gather. Deeper friendships are also built through playing games, celebrating family milestones or traveling together.
Most communities in our church share a meal together almost every week and often attend sports games, run/walk races or attend children’s school events together. Some families have taken vacations together. I know one community that hosts an annual soup contest where each family brings their favorite recipe and everyone enjoys tasting and voting on their favorite.
Care—In too many churches, people expect their pastor to visit the sick, encourage the hopeless, comfort the suffering or pursue the sinner who wanders away. While it is important for pastors to demonstrate care for their people, the New Testament model shows biblical communities, not just pastors, caring for one another.
To be certain, those who have the closest relationship to an individual can offer the most meaningful care. So, biblical communities see themselves as the church given to each other to meet one another’s needs. Most communities take meals to member families who are in crisis and visit one another in the hospital. They run errands for one another, watch each other’s children and help with home maintenance for those who are unable. In one instance, a community planned and put together a wedding for one of its members who was unable to afford the event.
Outward Functions
Serving/Volunteering—Healthy biblical communities serve and support their church. Because they are the church, they help their church fulfill its mission. They don’t all have to serve in the same ministry together at the same time (though some communities find great satisfaction in doing so), but they challenge each other to use their spiritual gifts to “build up the body.”
Communities have served our church’s children’s ministry, all together on a specific Sunday of the month. At a large Easter festival hosted by our church, my home group served together cooking food for our neighbors. The men in one community serve together to do landscaping for the church.
Evangelism—Very often, evangelism is thought of as an individual responsibility or a church “program.” But, so much evangelism in the early church was accomplished through communities—people sharing the Gospel together, or evangelists being supported by a specific community in their work. Biblical communities participate in the whole work of evangelism by praying for unbelievers, inviting unbelievers into their group to experience biblical love and acceptance, encouraging one another to share their faith and supporting the ministry of evangelism in their church.
My community encourages each other to share the Gospel in their own areas of influence. We pray for unbelievers and have hosted holiday “block parties” to gather our unchurched neighbors together to hear the Gospel. In one instance, several women in our community prepared desserts for another member who was hosting an open house and discussion about Jesus for her neighbors.
Even in the strategic work of door-to-door evangelism, biblical community is essential. Jesus sent His disciples in pairs to share the Gospel. Two or more Christians can support each other in the evangelistic task, pray for the one who is sharing and be a witness of mutual love and respect to the watching world.
Local Compassion—Biblical communities are aware of the needs in their local neighborhood or town and work together to extend compassion outside their church. They seek justice for the marginalized, defend the helpless, support the homeless, feed the hungry and clothe the poor. Through each act of service, those who are far from God experience the benefits of the Kingdom through God’s people.
There are so many ways that communities can make a difference in their world. My community makes 100 sack lunches for a local homeless shelter several times a year. We have worked together on maintenance projects at another local church. Some groups raise money to provide school supplies to needy children each year. One group has sorted food together at a food pantry. Another collected money to help a family in their neighborhood who lost their house to fire. Each of these are real expressions of compassion.
International Mission—Communities “face their chairs outward” not only by living on mission locally, but also globally. International missions is the task of the church and the church is made up of smaller communities. Therefore, communities must ever be “on mission,” growing a heart for the nations. Sometimes, this means members go on mission together and at other times, it means they support mission together.
While the mission field seems so far away, there are a number of simple ways communities can be involved in international missions. They can financially support one or more of their members who dare to travel to a mission field. Or, they may invite a visiting missionary to their meeting to talk about their particular ministry. Groups can pray for unreached people groups in the world, attend a mission conference together or read and discuss a book about world missions.
Regularly practicing these 7 Functions of Biblical Community causes a group to grow deeper with one another and have a greater impact in their world. In addition, its members experience a variety of transformational experiences that holistically impact their hearts, minds, hands and feet.
SUMMARY
This chapter highlights the next step in the spiritual pathway: Belonging to community. God has designed us for relationships with Him and with one another. Two are better than one. Therefore, Christians must not neglect the habit of meeting with each other. Once in community, members practice inward and outward functions, “facing their chairs inward” in ministry to one another and “facing their chairs outward” in ministry to those outside the group. The 7 Functions of Biblical Community include spiritual formation, recreation, care, serving/volunteering together, evangelism, local compassion and international mission.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
- Most spiritual transformation happens in community. Who has had the most significant impact on your life? What does this teach you about the value of community?
- Are you presently connected in community at your church? If not, what obstacles prevent you from taking this step? Prayerfully and courageously take this step by finding out more about biblical community in your church.
- Which of the four Community Principles is most valuable to you? Why?
- Which of the three Inward Functions—spiritual formation, recreation and care—is most difficult for you? What do you need to do to better practice this function in your own community?
- Which of the four Outward Functions—serving, evangelism, local compassion and international mission—is most difficult for you? What do you need to do to better practice this function in your own community?
- What is the most important thing you learned from this chapter?
*These 7 Functions of Biblical Community were first introduced to our church, then known as Pantego Bible Church, by pastor Randy Frazee in 2000. For more information about biblical community, the importance of community for Christian growth or these various functions of community, see Frazee’s The Connecting Church, 2009, HarperCollins.