At Buffalo City Church we see community as an non-negotiable element of the Christian life and so we regularly meet together in Community Groups. These communities are not designed to be a program, a once a week meeting, a church-growth strategy, or just another calendar item; rather, they serve a specific purpose in the life of BCC. There are three things that Community Groups are designed to do:
Community Groups are for gospel proclamation. Proclamation in the local church finds its expression in preaching the gospel (good news). That happens on Sunday morning, but it also happens throughout the course of our weeks. We are proclaiming some news all the time: the pseudo-gospel of the impending weekend, accumulation of wealth or material, or the actual gospel of what God has done for us in Jesus. Community Group provides us a space to reorient our proclamation away from news that the world says is good and toward the actual good news of Jesus Christ.
Community Groups are for gospel ministry. Reorienting our proclamation requires that we, as the church, view ourselves all as ministers of the gospel and not just consumers. The emphasis on community in the life of BCC and the intentional lack of other programing is so we can do just that. Filling a role and proclaiming the truth of the gospel to another are not the same; we are not ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16) and we will speak it to one another and pray it for one another regularly.
Community Groups are for gospel training. In order to be speaking the gospel to one another, we cannot unplug from community. We cannot expect to lives impacted by the gospel and ignore the church which is one of God’s chosen ways to grow our knowledge and love for Him. The Community Group space is designed to offer one another encouragement through ongoing gospel repetitions of applying the truth of the gospel to life circumstances and the life circumstances of others. Community Group is the gym where we discipline ourselves to build these muscles.
In light of these three things, we seek to engage one another in community with regularity. The fact of the matter is that our relationships in community will not always look the way we think they should. There might be seasons of frustration, awkwardness, misunderstanding, or dissension. Even so, the biblical directive to be together as the body of Christ is not contingent on how we feel or what we perceive about others; the responsibility to obey commands such as those to not neglect meeting together (Hebrews 10:25) does not flex based on our seasons of life.
We must fight for togetherness; it won’t come easily. Overloaded schedules, worry and anxiety, unexpected life circumstances, and our own desires will all vie for our attention. We engage the things that we love. Community Groups aim to reorient our loves from worldly, self-centered activities to a God-glorifying, humble, others-centered posture.
Recent Comments