•COMMUNITY•
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” -Hebrews 10:24-25
This verse describes the dream for a kingdom community. This verse has become our strategy for building, finding, and running with the incredible community and friends we have here. Today we want to share a little bit about what community and kingdom fellowship and friendship means to us and how we see this verse come to life in our day to day.
1. Stirring One Another Up to Love and Good Works
We see this first point as vital and easily summed up in just "challenging each other to be more Christlike". This looks like constantly inviting others to join you as you live a life of Christlike action. It means that we are always pushing each other towards being the best we can be.
We love the way our friends know us and know the call of God on our lives and the way they will never let us settle for the mundane or ordinary because they know what we are capable of. We know the giftings and talents of our friends and they know ours, so we are always calling each other into greatness and holding each other accountable to steward what God has given us.
Our community is also committed to loving each other on the good days and the bad and we all know that we can be fully transparent and ourselves with each other. Our friend group laughs about how often we ask each other "how is your heart?" because we genuinely want to check in on each other. There is no greater blessing than knowing that there are people in your life who truly know you and are able to speak life and truth into you when your low and that will always be there to pull the gold out of you on your less shiny days.
We also love how our community and friend group is committed to doing "good works" together. We have seen and know the dangers of becoming inward and self focused and know that we get so much more life and fulfillment from serving and helping others around us. Our crew loves getting to work on projects together around our community and can constantly be spotted praying for strangers, waitresses, evangelizing, and starting ministries and programs in our city that we all get so stoked to join in on.
Being here at this missions training school, we are constantly either going to the nations or talking to a friend who just got back. We have found that sharing and rejoicing over the testimonies of what God has done through us and our friends is one of the most fun ways to connect with each other.
2. Meeting Together
Both of us are total extroverts, but even our introverted friends in our community love and recognize how uniquely fun it is for us to all come together so often. From game nights to teaching swing dance lessons, we love coming together to be able to connect and be apart of each other's lives.
Our community knows how to have the most epic game nights, dance parties, and events, but we also know how to and really value going deep together with worship nights, prayer times, Bible studies and more.
Worshipping and praying together is at the core of our relationships and honestly one of our favorite things to do together because it keeps our relationships centered around Jesus and our eyes and perspectives locked on His kingdom and truth.
3. Encouraging Each Other
We already mentioned how important we've seen it be to call out the gold in each other, but we can not stress enough how important it is to have people around you that you know will always be there to champion, encourage, and build you up.
We aren't talking about flattery, but truly being celebrating each other for who God has created us to be. Being fully confident and free of all jealousy and comparison. Knowing that we all are needed and all have a seat at the table. We have learned to view each person around us as a son or daughter of the king and to ask God how He sees them and what He loves about them. This allows us to love and encourage each other deeply.
We love those around us because we first have been loved by Jesus and then have seen and realized how much He loves them too. We don't love or encourage to get love or encouragement back, we love because that is what we have been called to do and because it is what we have seen Christ model.
We are so thankful today for the friends we have here that have become family and this amazing community we are surrounded by. Everyone needs a Hebrews 10 community like this that stirs, inspires, encourages, and gathers together! We love this crazy tribe of wild Jesus lovers who are sold out for the gospel and about to disperse across the globe carrying the love of Jesus to the nations!
Maybe you are reading this today and wishing you had a community like this or even feeling discouraged and thinking "I could never find a group of people like that here". You might be thinking that this is only for us or you may not even know where to start. But the Bible makes it very clear that we were ALL created for relationship and we are ALL created to have this type of fellowship and community with other believers.
If you have never had this type of community before, or you want to experience more of what we've talked about today we want to give you some tips to either create a new community, or take your current one to the next level and live Hebrews 10 out!
Step 1: Set a new standard! The best way to influence and invite someone else into a new way of doing things is to "do first, then teach". You won't be able to live those 3 things out in community if you can't do them alone. Having community to chase after Jesus with is just the icing on the top of the joy that it is to wholeheartedly run with Jesus on your own. Live a life that inspires people and shines so bright that they are attracted to the Jesus in you.
Step 2: Send out the invitations! Now that you and Jesus are living it up on your own incredible adventure, pray and ask Him who you should have come and join you.
(Pro-tip: Jesus knows you WAY better than you know yourself. He actually knows who you need in your life more than you do, quite often the people we most want to be bff's with don't end up being the best fit. Ask Jesus who He wants you to hangout with and trust that He knows what He's doing. Decide today to get rid of any weird expectations or judgements on what a "cool"friend or community should be like)
Even if they don't take the first or even the first several invites, keep calling those around you into this new level of friendship. Encourage and love them even if they aren't sending it back right away and remember that the Love of Jesus is contagious. They might not see it right away but the truth is that they've been dying for this type of real, deep friendships and they might just think it's too good to be true at first. Show them that they are worth it and shine your light like crazy.
Step 3: Have FUN! Whoever said that Christians can't have fun must have been out of their minds, because the way I see it, it is entirely IMPOSSIBLE to not have fun when you have the very creator of joy living inside of you. Always remember that we have so much to be glad and thankful for and take frequent praise breaks to celebrate all that God has done in your life and in the lives of those around you. Enjoy the beauty of the world around you that He created, go explore, adventure, laugh, joke around, and have a blast. Life with Jesus is the absolute best! It's about time that the rest of the world realized how good life really could be when you're walking with the real embodiment of joy instead of the counterfeit that the world tries to offer.
We hope this encouraged and challenged you today and we would love to hear about the amazing communities and friendships in your lives and the ones you go and create.
We would love to get feedback from you and hear if there are any other topics you want us to talk about! Shoot us an email, DM, text, call, or carrier pigeon if you'd like, we can't wait to hear back from you all!
Much love, Jaco & Ashley
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