We are in our third week of our fall LifeGroup semester at Legacy, and I continue to not only enjoy but thrive off the relationships we have in our LifeGroup. We love continuing our friendships with those we have known for years while widening our circle of friends with those who are new to the group. Kim and I cherish Sunday evenings when our group gathers at our house to share part of our lives together.One of our core values at Legacy is "Authentic community fosters spiritual growth and transformed lives," and LifeGroups are our visible expression of that value. Relationships are the glue that holds the church together, and authentic community is how those relationships grow.
This past weekend several of us in our LifeGroup made shared some of our lives together at one of the group's parent's lake house. [You can see we were not roughing it by any means.] We slept late, took a walk (in circles at times), sat on the porch (even before make up!) and talked, watched football, cooked out, and in the middle of all that we shared our joys, hurts, faith and hopes.Community doesn't happen by simply following a curriculum or because you show up at someone's house every week. Authentic community comes from sharing the real stuff of life together. One trip to the lake together does not create this, but it can be one of many experiences that give us room to see our unguarded selves and experience God's promise of comm-unity only the church can provide.
This Sunday I will guide our thoughts and hearts to the biblical descriptions of community experienced by the early church. Read Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 4:32-37 for the stories. My prayer is that each of us can know this kind of life "in common" with others.