COV LIFE BLOG

Nehemiah 11-12 Covenant Community for the Glory of God

Why is it important that people gather in community and join God on His mission? It is important because all throughout Scripture, community is integral for the carrying out of God’s mission. God chooses to work through people to redeem His world. People reaching people. We undertake the mission of God together because by God’s design there is power in “together.”

Community existed even before the beginning of time and is rooted in the eternal Trinity. In Genesis 1:26 God says: “Let Us make man in Our image.” Our communal nature reflects the communal aspect of God. So fundamental is community that even in the most perfect environment mankind ever experienced, the Garden of Eden, “alone” was deemed “not good” (Gn 2:18). Ecclesiastes describes the importance of not being alone: “Two are better than one,” and “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecc 4:9,12). That’s why in prison the highest form of punishment is solitary confinement!

Jesus’ entire journey was undertaken through community. He modeled togetherness by starting community with twelve disciples who would carry out His mission. Jesus created a reproducible and strategic model for the mission to continue. The early church took community seriously and saw great fulfillments of the Great Commission (Mt 28:19-20) and the Great Commandment (22:36-40). In Acts 2:42-47 we see what community looked like and what it did. It fellowshipped, discipled believers, served, evangelized, and worshipped. The result: God’s mission spread. The events of Acts 2 occurred within months of the Great Commission. The Lord added to their number daily because these early believers were modeling what Jesus had done among them.

In Luke 5, four men broke through the roof of a synagogue to lower their paralyzed friend to Jesus. Sometimes it takes something as radical as that to fulfill God’s mission and lead someone to Jesus! As we are taught in Romans 12, we are a part of one body and we need one another.

How can your community help you see God’s mission fulfilled? Your community helps you:

(1) care about people who don’t know Jesus,
(2) believe God can reach the impossible person,
(3) make a plan for God’s mission to happen,
(4) overcome difficulties that try to stop God’s mission,
(5) have courage to do something different to accomplish God’s mission,
(6) work together to get God’s mission done, and
(7) be willing to pay the cost to do God’s mission.

Are you involved in a relational community of believers? If not, you’ll miss God’s design for His mission to be fulfilled.

Steve Gladden

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Heart Preparation
Read Nehemiah 11-12. Are you committed completely to the community of Covenant Life? What keeps you from committing?