Community Building Relationships Within God's Family

Community Copyright © 1998 by Willow Creek Association Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 ISBN-10: 0-310-26591-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26591-7 All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Interior design by Rick Devon and Michelle Espinoza Printed in the United States of America 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 /?DCI/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 S E S S I O N 1 C O M M U N I T Y THE HEARTBEATOF COMMUNITY T H E B I G P I C T U R E Chicago Tribune writer Marla Paul took a risk when she wrote a self-revealing column confessing her sadness and frustration over her own inability to build and sustain friendships. She wrote this column expecting little, if any, response. However, she was inundated with letters from others experiencing the same kind of isolation and frustration. One person wrote, "I've often felt that I'm standing outside looking through the window of a party to which I was not invited." What a vivid picture! Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever have a sense of being on the outside looking in? Another woman wrote, "I have this fear of becoming a very lonely, old widow sitting around and listening to the clock tick." This fear, she says, just about paralyzes her life. It is probably a well-founded fear, because she confessed in her letter that she has no sense of community. She has no family. She has no friendship or small group or church community of which she's a part. She feels that she's going to die alone, and she may be right. In the summer of '95, many people died in Chicago's heat wave. I was shocked to read that forty-one of them were buried in a mass grave called "The Potter's Field." Not a single person surfaced to claim their bodies or grieve their passing. Fortyone people died alone. Marla Paul ended her column about loneliness with these words: "Sometimes it seems easier to just give up and accept disconnectedness as a dark and unshakable companion; but, that's not the companion I want." She writes, "So I will persevere." She is going to keep longing, searching, trying, and hoping that someday she will be able to discover and develop community. A W I D E A N G L E V I E W 1. Describe a time in your life when you experienced real community and connectedness with other people. Where do you experience community now? A B I B L I C A L P O R T R A I T Read Genesis 2:15-25 2. What do you learn about loneliness and the human need for community from this passage? H A R P E N I N G T H E F O C U S Read Snapshot "Knowing and Being Known" 3. What are some of the things that keep us from opening our hearts and lives on a deep level so we can be known by others? 4. Suppose you made this commitment: "I am going to open my life in a way that allows others to know me deeply. I am going to find some people I will allow to see my deepest joys, needs, struggles, and victories. I am also going to invite them to open their hearts and lives to me on this same deep level." What are some of the possible risks you would be taking? What are some of the possible joys you might experience? KNOWING AND BEING KNOWN If I were to catch you in a quiet and reflective mood, and if you were aware enough of the longings and yearninHybels, Bill is the author of 'Community Building Relationships Within God's Family', published 2005 under ISBN 9780310265917 and ISBN 0310265916.