CHRISTIANITY IS COMMUNITY SERVICE

By David Olaluwoye

Image from Outreach Magazine

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity (Psalms 133:1 NIV).

God has always been interested in persons, he doesn’t need them but he wants them and the aim was to use them for his purpose. There has been a pattern in scripture of God choosing someone to represent him, he calls people and sets them on the path of righteousness.

He told Abraham, leave your father’s house to a place where I will show you and the idea of it wasn’t for him alone but for a nation which was to come. He called him alone but did not intend for him to remain alone.

He called Moses and set him in a process that seemed like a wilderness experience for 40 years and the intention was for a bigger set of people and making the first church in the wilderness.

He called Gideon, by special experience but Gideon was a plan set in play for a bigger set of people.

There are many examples of people being called but the intention is always a bigger one…a community and It’s a beautiful thing when God’s people are in a community.

I dare say the Pastor, Prophets, and every other position in the body of Christ isn’t meant for the name but meant for a job description that entails reaching people. Scripture says in Ephesians 4:12 NIV

…to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.

So there is a person called but the intention is a community and the church represents this fact, that even the Lord Jesus Christ paid the debt for all sinners and salvation was given to each person but he intended that people from different races, tribes, and nations will gather together in one heart and voice and worship God in spirit.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY SERVICE?

Community service is an event or series of events done in secular nations where people volunteer time and effort to benefit the community.

They participate in a process that would seem low for their status but which they aid and benefit the community, something like medical outreach volunteers, clean up the community volunteers, and so on. But the purpose will earn them no respect but just for the love and growth of the community.

Image from ACS Technologies

COMMUNITY SERVICE AND THE CHURCH.

The beautiful church of Christ purchased by his blood should maintain a sense of community no matter what, the pattern I see in this modern church isn’t the pattern I find in the Holy Scriptures, we see through the acts of the apostles that the church came together to pray (Acts 1 and 2) and the Lord was present in their midst but you’ll assume that this was the peak of the Christian community until we see in future scriptures (Acts 2:42-) where people came together in the church and had a sense of community.

All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts (Acts 2:44–46 NIV).

Reading this is beautiful, even in Acts 4:34 that there were no needy persons among them. From time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

They didn’t care too much for themselves but preferred the welfare of others in the church. They understood that the body is meant to be that they supply their part to the body and the body will be enriched and flourish. The foot shouldn’t neglect the hand, the hand shouldn’t neglect the ear, and so on.

Our differences and talents are meant to make everyone supply something unique to the body and enjoy the diversity but we must start by discerning ourselves in the body as a part of the community. To the point that when one part of the body fails, we mourn and restore, need I say more?

It would be a more enjoyable experience if we cared to discern the body more and stay in a community and not just stay but contribute to the community which is the body of Christ.

Shalom!