True community forms when a group of people find themselves in an unsettled place, when they are faced with a challenge greater than their individual abilities. It is then that they are untied around a common purpose outside of themselves. They cease to become a self-centered group and instead become a true community.
God's future for everything is such a common purpose. His mission, when embraced by a group of people, unsettles and drives them forward. As they move, they are drawn together.
Leaders must articulate that future and remind everyone constantly why we are together, lest we become self-focused, stop moving, and die.
With this mindset, the church becomes an all encompassing part of life, not just a once a week event. We have a group identity not because we congregate but because we are on the move together striving after "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Church happens and must happen everywhere, not just in buildings set aside for worship.
Our aim should not be to arrive; our aim is to journey.
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