Building an Authentic Faith - People

Dwight Moody was one of the most prolific evangelists of the 1800’s and the founder of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. The story is told of Moody going to visit one of the prominent citizens of Chicago one winter day and during their conversation the topic of church membership and involvement came up. "I believe that I can be just as good a Christian outside the church as I can be inside it," the man said, and he went on to tell Moody that he really didn’t have to go to church or be involved with the people of God to be a person of strong faith. Moody didn’t say much during the conversation but instead walked over to the fireplace where he removed one single coal and placed it on the hearth. Without saying anything the two men sat together and watched the ember slowly die out. After a moment the man turned to Moody and said, “I get your point.”

The point is that our faith can not survive outside of a strong community. To build an authentic faith, which is what we have been talking about these last few months, we need people, we need the family of God to surround us and support us and challenge us to go deeper in our walk with Jesus. Without the fire – the ember dies out, without the fire of God’s people burning around us, without the passionate faith of others encouraging us and stirring us up – our faith will slowly die out. For an authentic faith, being part of the church is not an option – it is a necessity. That God wants us to live as part of a larger community is the example we see all through scripture.

Let’s just start by looking at God. We talk about God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Do you notice something about the Trinity – there are 3 of them, three persons, a little family or community. God himself is relational and we see that each person of the Trinity works to bring about community. Think about the creation story in Genesis, the first thing God does is create a world that can sustain human beings, and God creates a world that can sustain life so that God can have fellowship, and if we are created in the image of God then we also are created for fellowship with God and with one another. And what was one of the first things God said after he created Adam? God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” God did not create us to live in isolation. We are not put together physically, mentally or spiritually to be alone, again, since we are created in the image of God we are created for relationship so our faith will not be as strong as it can be until we are part of a larger community of faith we call the church.

Then think about Jesus – what is the first thing Jesus did when he entered into public ministry? One of the first things Jesus did was invite people to join him. Jesus formed a team – a community to travel with him and live with him, and Jesus began to form a community that would love one another and care for one another. The disciples were really the first church and they were created by Jesus not just because God knows we need community but I think Jesus created that little team and family because Jesus needed to have that sense of community. For Jesus to do all that he was going to have to do in the weeks and years to come – he knew he was going to need the relationship of friends to sustain him.

Even the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, understands the importance of relationship and works to form a community. We heard from Acts 2 how this new community of Jesus followers were getting themselves organized and growing – but if we look back to the beginning of Acts 2 we find that it is the Holy Spirit that forms this community. At the beginning of Acts 2 the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and they are given so much courage and power and strength that Peter stands up and preaches a sermon that causes 3,000 people to join the church. The Holy Spirit is drawing people together and forming communities of faith because God knows that people will only grow in faith and reach their full potential when they are connected to others as part of a larger community, or family, or church.

Like Moody, I get frustrated at times when people say they can be a Christian and not be part of any faith community or church. While it’s true that you can believe something about God and Jesus without being part of a church, I’m not sure we can fully live out what we believe without the help of others, and I am convinced that we will never experience the fullness of joy and the passion of purpose without being part of a larger community of faith and this is because God created us to be in relationship and fellowship with one another, and until we are – we are not complete. God said it’s not good for us to be alone – that doesn’t mean we are to all get married (at least I don’t think that’s what it means, you might have guessed that since I am single) but I do believe it means we are not to live out our faith by ourselves, we need to be part of small groups and family groups and larger groups that will help shape and strengthen our faith.

Not only does this passage from Acts 2 tell us that we need to be part of a larger faith community – it also shows us what this community needs to look like. We see from Acts 2:42-47 that we need to be connected with other disciples of Jesus who as a group can helps us do 4 things: look in, look up, look around and look out.

We need to be part of a group that will help us look in to our own hearts and minds and lives. Turn back to Acts 2:42: They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. Are we looking in? Are we devoting ourselves to learning more about God and how to follow Jesus? Are we learning how to live a faithful life as a follower of Jesus in the world today? Are we learning about ourselves? Are we learning from others, are we challenging ourselves with new ideas? This is all a part of what it means to look in.

How we look in is also important? While it’s great to sit down and read a book – it is even better to sit down with others and read a book ,or a book of the Bible, so we can ask questions and find ways we can process and apply what we are learning. The single most important part of my spiritual life, and the one thing that has consistently helped me to grow in my faith, has been participation in small group Bible studies. I became a Christian through a small group Bible study at Michigan State University because it was there that I was able to not just read the gospel of Mark and learn about Jesus, but I was able to ask questions about what it all means and more importantly what Jesus means for my life today. I had people challenge me and explain things to me and they were patient with me when asked the same questions over and over again. Small groups have remained an important part of my spiritual development. When I was in seminary what kept me grounded and growing was a Bible study through a Presbyterian church. Since then it has been Sunday School classes, Disciple Bible Study, and a Men’s Bible study that have helped me keep looking inward to show me how much I still have to learn and how far I still have to grow. Beyond the Sunday School classes and Bible Studies we already offer, we are hoping to develop new small groups that will in part help us learn and grow in our faith and if you are interested in being part of a small group, please let me know.

We also need to meet with others and look up to God in worship. Again in Acts 2: 42 it says, They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and to prayer. The breaking of bread they talk about here was their celebration of communion, so the breaking of bread and prayer was their worship. If you think about it, worship in the early church was pretty limited. They didn’t have any hymns or songs about Jesus – they didn’t have any traditions or rituals to take part in other than the Lord’s supper and prayer, so that’s what they did and they did it together. Look at Acts 2:46 and 47, it says they continued to meet together in the temple courts, they met together for public worship and public times of prayer and praise. Corporate worship is important, and for these early followers of Jesus it gave them strength to keep following Jesus in a hostile environment. We still need these public times of worship to remind us who we are and what we believe. Worshipping with others grounds us in our faith in ways that nothing else can and the world is still a hostile environment today so we still need to come together.

We also need to look around – we need to look around at others in the church and build relationships of love and support. We need the fellowship of one another. Again, look at Acts 2:46, they ate in homes together with glad and sincere hearts. It is important for us to eat together in one another’s homes – it is fundamental to the growth and development of our faith and if you don’t believe that, then think about this. In the June 2006 issue of Time magazine there was an article that said children who eat with their families are healthier, happier, and better students. Children who regularly eat meals with their parents are 40 % more likely to get A's and B's in school than kids who have two or fewer family dinners a week. There is something about eating together that is beneficial to us – we learn better, we feel better about ourselves, we feel more connected. The value of eating together is significant and I don’t think this goes just for children and education. There is something spiritual about eating together. Think about it, the Passover meal which was the most holy worship time for the Jewish people took place at a family dinner. It was in the course of a meal that Jesus said to his friends, this is my body given for you and this is my blood which is shed for you. We will grow in our faith when we eat in small groups together where we can lean from one another and get support and love and encouragement from one another. What is sad, however, is that almost 2/3 of all people rarely if ever invite people into their homes for dinner. Family meals and having friends over for a dinner is a tradition we need to recovery both for the sake of our families and our faith.

So together in small groups and large groups we need to look in and learn, we need to look up and worship, we need to look around and develop relationships of ongoing fellowship and support, and then we need to look out to those beyond the fellowship and those beyond the church to welcome them and invite them in. A church or any type of faith community is only healthy if we are seeking to welcome others. Look at how this passage in Acts 2 ends, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Now the Lord could only add to their number if the church was willing to welcome new people in. If a church doesn’t have the desire or the vision to grow, not only will it not grow – it won’t survive.

While it’s not our job to change people’s hearts and lives, notice it says that it is the Lord who added to their number, it is our job to welcome people into the community of faith and make room for them at our tables and in our small group bible studies and in our services of worship. As important as the church community is to our faith – it can never become an exclusive club where people aren’t made to feel welcomed – it needs to be, we need to be such a welcoming community that people will want to join us.

We were created for relationship and community because we are created in the image of a God who is in himself relational and who in some ways is himself a community. So an authentic, passionate and powerful faith can only be developed and lived out in the context of a community of faith who can help us look in and learn, look up and worship, look around and fellowship and look out in order to welcome others in. If you are not feeling connected to those around you today or if you are not feeling well connected to God - then get involved in some kind of small group that will help develop and strengthen your faith.