AAEVS - Putting Together a Christ-centered Community (Part 1)

“Our vision is for our church to be a group of covenanted believers, a community of saints. We desire to display God’s love to one another through encouragement, accountability, exhortation and discipline. We want to support one another and seek to alleviate each other’s needs whenever possible.” ~ Community Paragraph 2

"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." ~ Acts 2:42

We have gone over most of the section on the Kingdom of God. Hopefully those posts have shown the necessity of a Kingdom-oriented vision. Now we come to the section on Community, probably the hardest concept to put into practice. Because it is against a individualistic mind-set in our culture that glorifies individuals that are concerned for themselves and do what is right in their own eyes. Also, not many people are concerned about a Church Community to begin with; There are few Christian books out there that talk about a community centered on Christ and Him Crucified. Therefore we need wisdom given by the Holy Spirit to discern how to practically construct a community according to Biblical standards.

So why a Church Community? Because God is three-in-one. All of the persons in the Trinity are perfect fellowship with one another, thus it is reflected in the local assembly which works to fellowship one with another. Being called by His Spirit and His Gospel, we have with all believers one common experience of grace that testifies of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because we still have our sinful nature which is stronger than our will, God has gathered us into local churches to be set apart by His truth for holy use. Therefore we need one another to bring us more to Christ-likeness.

I have made here a list of eighteen elements from the New Testament that are necessary for a Church Community; These attributes are to be cheerfully cultivated by every church member in the faith. The slashes mean that the qualities are similar and will be put together as one. All of these things overlap each other one way or another: 

1. Edification/Holiness
2. Unrestrained Love/Respect
3. Stronger Faith in the Promises of God
4. Joy/Thanksgiving
5. Truth/Doctrine
6. Sharing of Sorrow and Joy (Attaching it to Physical Welfare)
7. Humility/Selflessness/Meekness
8. Patience/Faithfulness (Saving it for the section following the next section)
9. Enthusiastic, Hedonistic, Cheerful Service
10. Unity/Peace (Saving it for the next section)
11. Accountability of Sinful Nature/Spiritual Warfare/Nouthetic Counseling
12. Prayer/Bible Reading/Psalm Singing
13. Respect and Imitation of Godly Pastors (Saving it for the next section)
14. Physical Welfare
15. Christian Justice
16. Christian Synergy (Saving it for the next section)
17. Hospitality (A Love for Attendants) (Saving for it the next section)
18. Strengthening of Marriages, Families, and Work Relationships (Saving for it the next section)

Because of fruitfulness of what could be said in this section, I am dividing it into four five eight seven eight parts.