When we share in the Word we partake of communion: we are sharing the life of Christ with one another.

A city is a large community where people are lonesome together

Xvxn though my typxwritxr is an old modxl, it works quitx wxll xxcxpt for onx kxy. Xvxn though thxrx arx 46 kxys that work wxll xnough, just onx not working makxs all thx diffxrxncx in lxgibility, corrxctnxss, and xffxctivxnxss. Somxtimxs it sxxms that our group is somxwhat likx my typxwritxr, not all thx kxys function propxrly. You think, "I am only onx pxrson. Thxy don't nxxd mx. I can slack and it won't makx much diffxrxncx." But, you sxx, Christ has madx us diffxrxntly. Xach of us is uniqux, and xach of us is rxquirxd. It is writtxn, "God has arrangxd thx parts in thx Body, xvxry onx of thxm, just as Hx wantxd thxm to bx." And also, "Thx wholx body, joinxd and hxld togxthxr by xvxry supporting ligamxnt, grows and builds itsxlf up in lovx as xach part doxs its work." So thx nxxt timx you think you arx only onx pxrson and that your xffort is not nxxdxd, rxmxmbxr my old typxwritxr and say to yoursxlf, "I am a kxy pxrson madx by God for a purposx and am nxxdxd vxry much."

D.L. Moody once called on a leading citizen in Chicago to persuade him to accept Christ. They were seated in the man’s parlor. It was winter and coal was burning in the fireplace. The man objected that he could be just as good a Christian outside the church as in it. Moody said nothing, but stepped to the fireplace, took the tongs, picked a blazing coal from the fire and set it off by itself. In silence the two watched it smolder and go out. “I see,” said the man.

Imagine standing out in the freezing cold for months on end, neither eating nor drinking, all for the sake of protecting your child. You are surrounded by other fathers in the same situation, with little room to even move. But move you do--in the most democratic fashion. Emperor Penguins--at 70 pounds, the largest of 18 species--are one of the most attentive fathers in the animal kingdom. Their involvement in the parenting process is one of total commitment. Each winter, these penguins gather in huge colonies on the pack ice of the Antarctic seas. After pairing, the female deposits a single egg and immediately returns to sea, where she can eat to replenish her energy. Meanwhile, her partner incubates the egg on his feet, where it is protected by a flap of skin and feathers. For the next 64 days he braves--in total darkness--one of the coldest periods of the year in one of the coldest climates of the world, where temperatures can plunge to -80° F. And all the while he fasts. To help cope with the cold, thousands of these birds move in close to each other, forming a large circle. Since the center of the group is much warmer, you would think that every penguin would fight to be there. But emperor etiquette dictates that no penguin advance himself at the expense of another. What looks like a stationary group is actually a slowly revolving spiral. This constant shifting formation allows each father--all the while protecting that single precious egg--some time in the cozy center, as well as at the frigid edge. By the time the chick hatches the seasonal ice has broken up, and the mother soon relieves her partner. Once he is fed and rested, the father rejoins his partner in caring for their newborn.

CONVERTING GEOGRAPHY INTO COMMUNITY "Community building" is emerging as an important topic not only for businesses, political and community leaders, but also for churches and other nonprofit organizations concerned about the transformation of neighborhoods and cities. Last November, a diverse group of leaders gathered in southern California to learn from each other and share ideas and resources on community building. Included in the group were pastors, leaders of community leadership foundations, business and corporate leaders, think tanks and parachurch ministries. The principal resource person for their discussions was Peter Drucker, who observed that, "In the last 40 years, there has been a veritable explosion in the number of nonprofits created in this country. There's never been anything like it. It's the most diverse sector and the largest number created have been community service organizations." As part of his preparation for the meeting, Drucker examined the results of 68 nonprofits, including churches that had been acknowledged for their effectiveness by the Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management. In searching for the "right things" they did to achieve results, he found five common actions. "The first thing to say, is that the ones who have results, aim at results. They have a very clear definition of and concentration on what they are trying to accomplish. One cannot do everything, one gets results by concentration." "They also abandon. They look every year or two at what they're doing, say what works and they concentrate on that. The successful ones know how to collaborate. They know how to mobilize community resources and work with others." "A fourth characteristic is that they do not look upon the beneficiaries as recipients. That creates dependence. I am not saying it's easy, but the recipients are not beneficiaries. They're partners to success. The real beneficiaries are the volunteers." "The evidence is reasonably clear that the greatest and most important part in creating community is to convert geography into community. You do not really achieve results by taking care of social ills. You achieve results by building a healthy body, a healthy community. And you do that by creating citizenship, if you want to call it that, community citizenship through your volunteers. This is, by the way, why faith-based institutions are more effective than any others." ______________

There is an old story told by Jewish Rabbis. It tells of a man in a boat full of people, drilling a hole in the bottom underneath his seat. The Captain tries to stop him, by telling him that if he makes a hole the boat will sink and they will all drown. 'But,' the man replies, 'it is my own seat; I can do whatever I like under my seat.'

According to the book No Ordinary Time, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, the first peacetime draft occurred October 29, 1940. President Franklin Roosevelt and Secretary of War Stimson sat on a stage in a crowded auditorium in Washington, D.C. In the preceding weeks all males between 21 and 35 had been given a draft number, and all those numbers were in cobalt capsules in a big fishbowl on the stage. Stinson was blindfolded with some yellow linen cloth cut from a chair used at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He reached into the bowl and pulled out the first capsule he touched. He handed it to the President who read into the many microphones before him, "The first number is 158." Goodwin writes: No sooner had the president spoken than a women's scream was heard. Seated in the middle of the crowded auditorium, Mrs. Mildred Bell gasped. Her 21-year-old son, Harry, who was supposed to be married the following week, held number 158. Now his future was linked to that of his country. Number 158 was held by some six thousand registrants in different precincts throughout the country, including Cleveland welder Michael Thompson, father of three children; Jack Clardy, a one-armed Negro banjo picker from Charlotte, NC; and unemployed James Cody of Long Island City. In New York, the surnames of those bearing number 158 told a story in themselves: Farrugia, Chan, Re, Weisblum, Tsatsarones, Stoller, Clement. Some were pleased and proud to be the first number called, others said they'd make the best of it, still others were upset at their bad fortune. God draws the number of all those he saves. We are called to be salt and light, to be ambassadors and priests, and there are no deferments. We're enlisted to display righteousness in a wicked world, to help the weak and feed the hungry, to represent the Living God, to tell sinners about Jesus. There is no one who is saved who is not drafted by God to be an agent of grace.

"A man went to an asylum for the criminally insane. He was a bit surprised to find that there were three guards to take care of a hundred inmates. He said to one of the guards, "Aren't you afraid that the inmates will unite, overcome you, and escape?" The guard said "Lunatics never unite." Locusts do. Christians should. If we don't, we don't know where our power is." also "Back at the turn of the century, there was a plague of locusts in the Plains of the United States. In a matter of a few days that swarm of locusts swept over the states of Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas. In less than a week, they did over five hundred million dollars' worth of damage (in the currency of that time). Locusts don't have a king to get them organized. They don't have a draft board to call them into ranks. By instinct the locust knows it has to be in community with other locusts. When that occurs, they are able to topple kingdoms. The wisdom of the locust is the wisdom that tells us we must have community."

You heard what happened to the banana, didn't you? When the banana left the bunch it got skinned.

In the movement associated with John Wesley, people met together in little communities to help hold each other accountable for their deepest values and most important decisions. Wesley had a beautiful phrase for this: he called it watching over one another in love. Before someone entered into this community, they would be asked a series of questions to see if they were serious about living in mutual accountability. Sometimes when I speak on community I'll read these to church leaders, and ask them to imagine these questions being posed to attenders at their churches: · Does any sin, inward or outward, have dominion over you? · Do you desire to be told of your faults? · Do you desire to be told of all your faults—and that plain and clear? (By this point, church leaders are inevitably laughing at even the idea of people putting up with such pointed questions.) · Consider! Do you desire that we should tell you whatsoever we think, whatsoever we fear, whatsoever we hear concerning you? · Do you desire that in doing this we should come as close as possible, that we should cut to the quick, and search your heart to the bottom? · Is it your desire and design to be on this and all other occasions entirely open, so as to speak everything that is in your heart, without exception, without disguise, and without reserve?

The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity.

A little boy named Danny lived with his family in a trailer. One day someone asked him, "Don't you wish you had a real home?" Danny's reply was wise beyond his years. He said, "We have a real home. We just don't have a house to put it in." A house and a home are very different. A house is just a physical structure, made perhaps of brick or wood or stone. It can be large or small. It may not even have persons inside. If a house does not include persons, their relationships lack love or commitment. By contrast, a home is a haven of shelter, acceptance, and unconditional love. It includes at least one person. In it each person's value is unlimited, and their mutual commitment is forever. Any decent contractor can construct a house. But only God can build a home.

"There’s no peer pressure." -- Unknown, Woman’s response to being asked about the benefits of turning 102.

It is difficult to be indifferent to a wide-awake Christian, a real live person of God. It is even more difficult to be indifferent to a whole body of Christians like this. You can hat them or you can love them, but one thing is certain. You can’t ignore them. There is something about them that won’t let you. It isn’t so much what they say or what they do. The thing that seems to haunt you is what they do. The thing that seems to haunt you is what they are. You can’t put them out of your mind any more than you can shake off your shadow. They confront you with an entirely different way of life -- a new way of thinking, a changed set of values, a higher standard of living. In short, they face you with the kingdom of God. There is no washing of hands. These people must be crowned or crucified, for they are either mighty right or mighty wrong.

I need the Christ in you, and you need the Christ that is in me. We need each other.

Madness is rare in individuals--but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.

I do not think much of “spiritual” communities. They do not last. People are friends for a while, but it eventually ends. Anything that is going to last must have a much deeper foundation than some kind of spiritual experience. Unless we have community in the body, in things material, we will never have it in spiritual matters. We are not mere spirits. We are human beings of flesh and blood.

There is a mystery about kite-flying that has always intrigued me. When the kite string breaks for some reason, one would think that the kite freed from all restraints would soar higher into the skies. But it doesn't. It starts zigzagging, flipping, and diving. Finally, it crashes into a tree or power line. People react in a similar fashion. That person who claims to be utterly free, to be obligated to nothing or nobody, is almost always a pitiful slave to selfishness. His life usually is a tale of tragedy, ending with a crash. On the other hand, the happiest and most creative people on earth are those who keep a taut line of faith between themselves and God, allowing God to direct and support them. If you would compare yourself to kite, how are you flying these days? (Bill Bouknight, "Just a thought")

[on leaving America to join another country] The boldest approach is to start a nation of your own. Sadly, these days it is essentially impossible to buy an uninhabited island and declare it a sovereign nation: virtually every rock above the waterline is now under the jurisdiction of one principality or another. But efforts have been made to build nations on man-made structures or on reefs lying just below the waterline. Among the more successful of these is the famous Principality of Sealand, which was founded in 1967 on an abandoned military platform off the coast of Britain. The following year a British judge ruled that the principality lay outside the nation’s territorial waters. New citizenships in Sealand, however, are not being granted or sold at present. A less fortunate attempt was made in 1972, when Michael Oliver, a Nevada businessman, built an island on a reef 260 miles southwest of Tonga. Hiring a dredger, he piled up sand and mud until he had enough landmass to declare independence for his “Republic of Minerva.” Unfortunately, the Republic of Minerva was soon invaded by a Tongan force, whose number is said to have included a work detail of prisoners, a brass band, and Tonga’s 350-pound king himself. The reef was later officially annexed by the kingdom. More recently, John J. Prisco III, of the Philippines, has declared himself the prince of the Principality of New Pacific, and announced that he has discovered a suitable atoll in the international waters of the Central Pacific. As of publication, the principality has yet to begin the first phase of construction, but it is already accepting applications for citizenship.

To say "I was hurt by the church and just can't consider it any longer" is as silly as someone saying ""I had my heart broken as a teenager and just can't consider relationships anymore." Of course you had your heart broken as a teenager. But the problem was not with romance itself, but with your context and habits. Mature people do not give up on the goal, but learn to pursue it differently. Likewise with the church. Pursue the goal of Christian community, but do it in a different way.

[<i>After a discussion about degrees of handshake separation from famous people.</i>] On the less pleasant side, this observation implies that we are only seven or eight handshakes away from the most repulsive or germ-infested human beings on the planet. Let's hope some of those intermediate shakers washed their hands before the chain reached us.

We Best See Ourselves Through The Eyes of Others

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. –1 Thessalonians 5:14 This is one of my favorite passages. It helps us see there are people in our midst who are idle, some who are fainthearted and others who are weak. A wise minister/counselor will use a different tool for each person. .... When someone is set in their ways and living in active rebellion you don’t coddle them with a message of grace and Jesus loves you. You admonish them. But at the same time you don’t admonish the faint-hearted. As one person has said, “Wisdom dictated that they should not ‘warn the weak’ nor ‘encourage the idle’”. Instead we are to “encourage the faint-hearted”. ... We don’t see things correctly. The idle often think they’re weak. The faint-hearted rebuke themselves for idleness. We need another set of loving eyes to come alongside us and properly apply the gospel. And for that you need a local church. And for that to actually “work” and matter and do what it’s supposed to do—you need to pursue being known and to know others.