With church attendance rebounding since the pandemic, Christians need to be encouraged to recall and remember what the writers of the Bible say about the vitality of Christian community, not to mention the command from God to meet together. Now more than ever, Christians need to be reminded about why we gather together as a community. Gathering together with other Believers is a calling from God, and we cannot lose sight of that calling despite the vast distractions in our world today. We must remain faithful to the call of God, and stand firm on His Word, which says we ought not neglect gathering together (Hebrews 10:24-25).
God designed Christians to gather together in community because we each carry unique anointings, spiritual gifts, and skills from God that are meant to be shared with one another.
What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 1 Corinthians 14:26 (NIV)
God gave wonderful gifts and talents to many Christians, with the intention that they could share them and serve their communities. Each person that belongs to the body of Christ has a meaningful place in gathering together. If we neglect meeting together, or if some people are absent, we are not going to have the full picture (or the complete members of the body of Christ). In 1 Corinthians 12, it is stated that each person that follows Jesus makes up the body of Christ and some are hands, others are eyes, some function as a mouth, etc. It even shares if everybody were an eye, where would the hearing come from? We need each person in the body of Christ to properly operate, and if some are missing or not meeting together then we are hindered from fully operating as God intended.
Christian community also has built in blessings for gathering.
Our communities can help in hard times. Everyone, at some point or another, will face trials and difficult circumstances in their lifetimes. We aren’t meant to do life alone, and a Christian community can help in troubled times. A vast array of things can happen, whether it be family crisis, financial ruin, unexpected circumstances, etc. and it is in these moments, that our communities can stand together and pray.
Moses had a very interesting method of winning a war in Exodus 17. As long as Moses’ hands were held up, the Israelies were winning, but when he grew too tired to keep them up and he dropped them, they began to lose. So Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands on each side and they won the war. Sometimes, we also have a war to face but we are too weary to fight it alone. It is our Christian community who can come alongside us, and hold up our weary hands so that we can overcome life’s battles, and this is especially true for Christian leaders. God can use a Christian community to help fulfill the plans and purposes of God in our lives, and God frequently uses our communities to help us achieve His plans.
If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Ecclesiastes 4:10 (NIV)
There can be a heavy emphasis on getting seats filled in churches, but God promises to show up when there are simply two people gathered in His name (Matthew 18:20). God structured Christian community so that we could reap the benefits of community, serve the community, and corporately worship Him together. God promises that His Presence will be there when we gather in His name, and whether it is a tiny Bible study in a home, or a large gathering at a church–God remains true to His Word.
We must not forsake gathering in Christian community because the Bible instructs us to meet together so that we can spur each other on in the faith. God uses Christian community to encourage us, refine us, and build us up and if we neglect it, we will miss out on many things that God is doing. We must uphold the values in the Bible that encourage us to meet together and to lean on one another in troubling times. There are multitudes of blessings found in a Christian community, and we severely limit God if we aren’t a part of one. We have contributions, God given talents, and gifts to give our Christian communities, and we also reap the benefits of being built up by being a part of a Christian community.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42 (NIV)
Keilah Jude is an actress and model that resides in the Chicago, IL area where she and her husband planted a church called Axess Church. She is a current graduate student at Wheaton College studying Bible and Theology. Some of Keilah’s work includes playing a runway model in The Last Witch Hunter with Vin Diesel, acting in all four Horse Camp movies (on Amazon Prime), appearing in four ALDI commercials, and modeling for various fashion magazines and designers. Connect with Keilah via www.KeilahJude.com.
