Well, welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well, and as we turn this week our thoughts to the idea of community. Suzi, I think one of the things that I would say was a major shift in the church. So we've been four decades in church work and church leadership. co really has changed the dynamic of the church and still has its effects and what I mean by that is this. we had the benefit during COVID when we couldn't gather, we couldn't get together of technology and where it's at now and churches streamed their services or they streamed the recording of services cuz no one could meet together and it was a wonderful gift that I think came at the right time. If you if you'd gone 10 years earlier that wouldn't have been possible but even small churches allized churches were able to tap into technology and people found it to be a way to continue to have a church service but from the comfort of their home.
Yeah.
Now CO is a distant memory and we can go back to church now. And yet we know of people who just don't go to church anymore.
They just they stay at home and they watch online or they may not even watch their church service. They watch their church of the day wherever it is across the country. And when that happens, I'm going to sound like an old cremagin, which I hope I'm not, but I think you miss out on what is one of the key reasons why we gather, and that's community. And I think babe that's exactly right. The community is what we're missing. And yeah, CO is a thing of the past. unfortunately it will be in conversations for a long time. But what happened was it broke down the need and the desire to be together because people got scared. I don't want to be at a gathering because I might get whatever. And so here we are all these years later. And that's one aspect. I think another aspect that has broken community church community apart is that if somebody has been wounded by the church or they don't like the new pastor or they don't like the program or whatever, they either leave church or they rotate around. Like we've noticed in our town, gosh, back when you were doing pastor full-time, we noticed this a lot is that we joked around about how churches should have like revolving doors on them so that people could come and go and come and go because if somebody got didn't like something, they would go through the revolving door and go to another church, but they might revolve right back in. Now, that's going to sound that is coming from years and years of watching people do that. So, forgive me for that little rant, but the part that's missing is the community of believers. And in light of what we've talked about for the last two weeks, the struggle and the tragedies and catastrophic events, community to me is what God has set up to bear each other's burdens, to be there for each other, like in the book of Acts, to help each other in need because he designed us to be in fellowship with each other. And that's what's missing.
Yeah. So, I go to the book of Hebrews, which is one of my favorite books in the New Testament. And in these verses, which again, we probably have touched on these before at some point over the last couple years of the podcast, where the author of Hebrews says, "Let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works." And that's to the that's to the church body. Let us consider not just pastors, not just paid professionals, but let's all consider how to stir up one another to think really hard about how we can stir one another to love and good works. And it's followed by this verse, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near. So, so that verse, I think, has been horribly used, at least in some of the church circles I grew up in, when they said not neglecting meeting together, they use that to prop up the attendance at the Wednesday night prayer service or the Sunday night service when churches had Sunday night services. But I don't think that's it's not a specific service, but the idea that we get together in community. Why? To encourage one another. And then as the author of Hebrews said, all the more as we see the day approaching. Well, this now 2, 000 years later and the day is still approaching and the need to be together to encourage one another
and I think it's important too to you know maybe you're in a small group and that's great and you might even say well I consider that my church I don't have an argument against that. I think that's wonderful that you're doing that. But I think it's important for us to be under the authority of someone's teaching that God has set aside to be our shepherd. our leader to guide us in the word. That person has prepared and prayed and wrestled with the scripture, studied it, and is presenting it to us as food for the sheep. And I think that's really, really important. You know, also on a smaller level, we've had, we spoke about this, I think last week, we have had a couple of friends that have been through some major health stuff. And as I observe, I see what they have benefited from is community. Meaning people have come around not just to bring meals and meals are great and they can also be you know sometimes people don't bring great meals. We know that but it's the encouragement to say to the person who is struggling with their health or their loss of job or their loss of someone they loved to say I'm standing with you. I will bear this burden with you and we're going to keep moving forward but we need one another.
Yeah. And I think that's the part that I would say we tend to downplay our impact on other people's lives. I think we tend to sell ourselves short that what we are doing could actually encourage somebody else could actually stir something in them to walk with Christ in a more fruitful way.
Well, I think it's also Yeah, I like that. we if we are reflecting Christ then and we are to be living like him. And what did he do? He walked with his disciples. He touched them. He cared for them. He looked into people's eyes. And community is that. And I think on a larger level, you know, it's so hard. People are like, "Oh, I'm w I feel like I'm wandering here." But people go, "The church is too big. The church is too small. They know too much about me. They don't know enough about me. No one's friendly." All these reasons why we give for not going to church. And yet the church is the opportunity for us to experience community, but also it is the representation of the body of Christ.
Yeah. And so I want to encourage you this week as you stop and think about it. If God places someone on your heart, a person who you go to church with or a person who's in your small group, or just a close friend, reach out. Don't if God places someone on your heart, don't take that as I thought about this person. Why don't you reach out? You might offer words of encouragement that you don't even know the need for. But God has allowed you to remember somebody's name in such a way that we understand as the body of Christ, we are his instruments to one another, to the world, yes, but we're also the instruments to one another to be encouragement, to be life, and to be a source of understanding that God is at work in their lives.
And if I could just say one last thing, cuz You know, I like to do the one last thing. If you have been disappointed in the church, wounded by the church, please, please, find a place where you can worship together corporately and learn God's word. We gain nothing from telling you this. It's not like we're supporting a particular church or denomination. We're not. We're just We just want you to know that the benefit of meeting together separately of coming together as the body of Christ is really really important to your spiritual growth.
Have a great week.