It Takes A Village: The Power of Community Support in Achieving Our Goals

I’m not a fan of group projects. Instead of appreciating what everyone can bring to the table, I would rather just go it alone taking full responsibility and taking full control. We are all born with an innate desire for independence. Once we are weened and are no longer dependent on our parents for basic needs, we adopt an I-can-do-it-myself mentality.

This self-sufficient bent is compounded in Western culture. Part of our American identity is being self-made and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We develop a world view, a lens of life, that filters everything through the belief that Independence=Good and Dependence=Bad. We see and interpret the world through an understanding that dependence is shameful and weak, and independence is associated with pride and strength.

Independence is not a bad thing. We should have a sense of our individual selves that distinguishes us from others. But there is also a need for individual character and personality to intersect with and support others. We all have areas where we need someone else’s ability because as individuals we don’t possess the characteristics that form individuality in others. We were made this way…on purpose.  We were created to have want, and need, of others. It is God’s plan.

Detriment of Individualism

Raised by a single mother, I grew up with the sense of not being able to depend on others when my world was upended when my parents divorced. Going it alone seemed like the best way to manage life. My father no longer present, my younger self believed people to be unreliable. They can just go away at any given moment and so as an anonymous philosopher once said, “There is no dependence that can be sure, but a dependence upon one’s self.”  

Self-reliance is not only unhelpful, as we cannot see past our own perspective, but can be detrimental. I have met many people along the way, who have suffered from an inability to seek out partnership or help when going through rough patches. Because of the stigma of dependence, people often choose to carry burdens alone with limited solutions for they fail to invite other possibilities and opinions int their circumstance. The result is increased suffering, at least until they have exhausted their own emotional and intellectual  resources. Instead of admitting that we are not all-sufficient, we cling to the limited abilities we offer ourselves. We miss the abundance of offerings those around us bring.

Made for Community

God made us in his image, which means we were made for community. In Genesis, when God speaks of making humans in His image (Gen. 1:26), He uses the pronouns Us and Our. This shows that God is a plurality. He is not one entity, doing things alone. He is a community within Himself. As we study the New Testament, we learn more about the Holy Trinity and how it works in communion within itself. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, triangulate to accomplish the plans and the will of God. In the gospels we see the interdependence through Jesus’ relationship with His Father and how He relies upon the Holy Spirit to do the miraculous, and also to fortify and enable His disciples.

We also find in Genesis 2:18, when God created Adam and then had him name all the animals, He said it is “not good for man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). God created us perfectly and completely, but He intentionally did not make us with all same qualities, needs, abilities, character we need to live a full life on earth. We are created as part of a whole. This forces us to depend on one another. This passage is primarily used in the context of marriage, but the marriage of Adam and Eve was necessary to establish the concept of relationship for them. Relationship is the subset and the seed of community .

Jesus Liked Group Projects

Jesus existed in, worked in, and modeled in community. Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. He could have ridden into Jerusalem on a horse and conquered the Romans to set Israel free, single-handedly, for He is God. He is our King. But that was not the kind of king He came to be. Jesus had an intricate and multi-faceted plan for rescuing us. That plan began with community.

Not long after Jesus began His earthly ministry, He began to call others to follow and live with Him. Whether it was from a fishing boat, or a tax collector’s booth, or while passing through Capernaum, Jesus’ call of “Follow Me” formed a community with those who answered.

 Jesus had many disciples but chose twelve apostles with whom He would live and commune (Mark 3:13-14). He found a tribe in which they would learn about Him and one another. Jesus created a context in which others would become like Him. Within that community Jesus modeled the following:

• Calling others alongside to share life (Mk. 3:13-14)

• Equality—Jesus called the Twelve His “friends”. (Jn. 15:4-15)

• Mutual accountability and correction. (Mat. 7:3, 16:23)

• Compassion to meet the needs of others. (Mat. 25:34-36, Jn. 6:1-14)

• Humility in service to others. (Jn. 13:1-17)

• Empowerment and division of work among diverse and uniquely gifted individuals. (Mark 6:7)

• Forgiveness and grace to those who were challenging. (Mat. 8:26, Jn 21:15-25)

• Sacrificial love, ultimately in His death on the cross (Mt. 27:32-56, Mk. 15:21-41, Lk.23:26-49, Jn.19:16-37

4 Reasons to Follow Jesus’ Community Model:

1. We are encouraged by Scripture to be in community. (Heb. 10:25, Gal. 5:13, Js. 5:16, Acts 4:32

2. We are not saved for ourselves; rather we are saved to share and to be part of the community of God. We belong to one another in and though Jesus’ sacrifice for all humanity.

3. Community is the space where we grow in love and become conduits of God’s love. We are God’s agents, His answers and presence to human need.

4. Christian life is NOT EASY! We need each other for support, accountability and discipline. We need people who check on us and challenge us, asking hard questions, encouraging us to live out our faith.

Elements of a Healthy Community

We have spent a year encouraging our gatherings to be more like Jesus. We want to push our brothers and sisters to move beyond meeting man-made “Christian” expectations, to walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Each of the qualities of Jesus that we taught about are acquired and cultivated in community. Community is where we put our Jesus-following unto practice.

A healthy Jesus-Following Community is a place…

• …where loving God by loving people is the central focus.

• …that offers encouragement and support among members

• …where learning and teaching Scripture for Kingdom-building and sanctification is paramount

• …that provides for loving accountability.

• …that offers opportunities for service and ministry

• …that encourages prayer and worship

• …that offers a safe space for forgiveness and reconciliation

• …that fosters outreach, taking the love of Christ beyond the Church

• …that encourages members to be more like Jesus

• …where Acts 2 is a model for Christ-focused fellowship

Faith Crosses Community

The Jesus-Following Community, whether you call it a family, a tribe, or a village, offers the kind of diversity that reflects the Kingdom of God. The Christ-led community is where you practice your faith and where your faith grows through seeing what the power of God can do through the strength of a healthy body.

We are Cross Community, Inc, a name we chose with the intention to build a community of love that serves a greater community as the hands and feet of Christ. The Cross of Christ is our motivation, but we hope to cross paths with other communities to join in loving God by loving people. The shape of a cross is an intersection. It is two distinct pieces that come together to make one entity. True faith never stands on its own but is seen as it intersects with the agency that God has given us. If our faith doesn’t collide with opportunity to address need, injustice, or oppression, we are not following Jesus and we are not following His community model. May the Holy Spirit lead us to find our place in being part of a whole, for it takes a village to raise a Christ-follower.