Communers not Consumers: 6 Ways to Build Community in your Church

What do you want in a church?  A strong youth program, a fantastic minister, visionary elders, lots for your kids to do?  

Would you trade all of that for community?  You know a church where everyone knows you, not your mask but the real you, and loves you anyway?  A place where you are integral, where you are missed, where you are needed?  A place where you know everyone.  Their hurts are yours, their joys are your, their children are like your own nieces, nephews, grandkids.  No, if you had that, you'd be a part of that church for the rest of your life. 

Calling All Introverts: The Church Needs You!

Recently in an adult Sunday school class, we were discussing how people sometimes drift away from the church, and two different people pointed out that introverts often feel unneeded in their congregations, like they don’t have anything to offer.  It brought to mind this passage from Paul to the Romans: 

Kindness

When I was a little girl, my parents would pile us in the car and drive from Tennessee to Michigan over the course of a night to visit my grandparents. I suppose it was to save hotel bills, vacation days and their nerves, since generally we snoozed in the backseat.  I remember lying with my feet propped up on the window, watching the trees and the street lights whiz by. 

Sometimes I read my Bible like that.  Eyes heavy with exhaustion, a sleepy complacency stealing over me, I let the words skim past with as little impact as the whizzing trees.  Take kindness; obviously I know that Christians are supposed to be kind.  But I have as little idea of what kindness should really look like as I did the darkened landscape of Indiana.