A Creative Minority: Covenant Community

That's how it goes. Hey, let's just pray. Let's begin with prayer.

I think that'd be a good place to start here.

So Lord, thank you so much. Thank you for this community. Thank you for this morning.

Thank you for this busy season. Lord, for those who are at home and sick and

recovering in various ways, Lord, we pray for their quick recovery, Lord, for their health.

So Lord, just do that, we pray. For those who are traveling or away,

Lord, we ask you to bless them.

Lord, for those of us who are here, Lord, would you knit us together in a community?

Lord, would you open, would you just inspire us, Lord, to see our lives the

way that you see them, Lord, to see our influence the way that you see it,

to see our purpose the way that you see it, Lord.

We need every day to have this kind of like redirection, reorientation,

refocusing, Lord. So we ask you to refocus us today.

In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, guys, so we're starting this new series, our last series in this

building, and we're doing that very much keeping in mind the move.

I'm sorry, this is not a very legible slide. I put it up.

I'm like, okay, well, it says a creative minority, and I'll explain what that is in a second.

But we are keeping in mind the move that's coming up, right?

Because we are imminently at the end of October, we're replanting is the word

that I'm using, and I'm using that word intentionally because,

yes, it is a move of location, but it's more than that.

I mean, we're leaving this building. We're passing it off to a Chinese-speaking

church who's going to love it for generations and use this as a base to reach

their community with the gospel.

I think a very underserved community, under-reached community,

so I'm excited for them to have a place to reach that community.

And we're moving to a new location in downtown Snoqualmie.

But to say that we're just moving buildings does not, I think,

capture the reality of what's going on. This move is more than just finding

a new container in which to do church, right?

It is about making possible a particular vision of how we can be the church.

Placed in a unique place and approaching ministry in a unique way.

It is a way for us to, as a church, live out our mission, mission to reach the

community that we live in and that we're serving in, the Snoqualmie Valley and the towns around.

But since we're focusing in on this downtown area in Snoqualmie,

it's going to be our main focus.

And so it's just a way for us to mobilize and build our church around a particular

way of engaging with our community.

One of my favorite pastors is a guy named John Tyson. Back when I lived on the

East Coast, I knew of him and got to be a part of kind of a circle of kind of

pastors who were kind of learning from him.

And so he pastors a church in Manhattan and he's a pastor.

People on the East Coast are more familiar with him, but in 2016,

he wrote a really short book that casts a vision for what the church can be.

He argues that the missional vision for the church is to be a creative minority.

I'm borrowing this phrase from him.

He defines what a creative minority is in this way.

He says, a creative minority is a Christian community in a web of stubbornly

loyal relationships, knotted together in a living network of persons who are

committed to practicing the way of Jesus together for the renewal of the world.

So what Tyson says is that this is kind of his way of describing the church,

its being, and the way that it is missionally sent into the world.

It's sent in this way and it looks this way. And I love this as a vision for

the church because I think it threads

the needle and describes the way the church can exist in the world,

and particularly in a world that is not predominantly Christian,

hence the minority part, right?

I mean, because we live in the suburb of Seattle, and we live on the east side,

which is more Christian.

But in general, this is not a particularly majority Christian culture that we're living in, right?

So he's threading the needle of how the church can exist in the world,

not on the one hand like trying to dominate the world or condemn the world,

have an adversarial relationship with the world, right?

Through trying to exert power or take control, right?

So he's saying it's not bad, nor is it, on the other hand, retreating into the

background, kind of cloistering away, being separate from the world and not

trying to engage or reach the world.

What he is saying is instead that we ought to have a vision of,

yes, a unique and distinct community, which is what the church is,

but one that is marked by just like crazy close ties and devoted to practicing

life, your life, the life that you live on a day-to-day basis in the way that Jesus would live it.

Because he says, as we do that, as the church does that, forms this community,

this community of close connection built around practicing the way of Jesus.

That is how we do our missional work of spreading the gospel,

of seeing the world renew, of seeing culture renewed, of seeing people brought into the kingdom.

He says, if we focus on what we're doing in ourselves, actually,

that is in a surprising way, I think, for us.

It's the best way for us to be missional in the world, to accomplish our mission

of spreading the gospel.

That's how we come along and are on mission with Jesus. Because when Jesus came

into the world with the gospel, he went around preaching it, proclaiming it.

And then his plan after his ascension into heaven was, I send the church out.

And the church is this community.

It's not people who just have a script that they read off of.

It's not people who just have head knowledge.

It's a living, breathing, knit together group of people who are called to love one another.

And in that love, like their love and their obedience to Jesus and their love

for one another, like that is the driver of mission in the world, right?

Because Jesus could have just sent us out with a message, but he didn't send

us out only with a message.

He sent his church, he formed his church, sent his church out together collectively

with a message, yes, but as a group of people called to a purpose.

I just think of Paul's words in Philippians 2. He says this,

he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who

is working in you to both will and do according to his good purposes.

Do everything without grumbling and arguing. And this is what he says.

This is like, if you do this, if you're just like stepping into the purpose

that God has you, then you will be blameless and pure children of God,

faultless in a crooked and perverted generation among whom you shine like stars

in the world by holding firm to the word of life.

So there's this understanding in

scripture Paul surely understood it That we are separate And

yet we are not separating ourselves Like we

are people who have a different calling A different purpose Like to live a different

kind of way And yet when we live into that way Holding firm to the word of life

Then there is this shining This brilliance This beauty This lighting up of the

world That happens when the church is leaning into its purpose.

Paul understood, I think, I mean, I think it's so clear in the New Testament.

We'll talk about it a little bit more here. But I think he understood that the

greatest missional opportunity that the church has is to be community itself.

A community that shines like a star by way of contrast to the way of the world.

And our greatest strength is not, I think what we've oftentimes put it in,

it's not eloquent people or smart people or bold leaders or how much money we

have. or the greatness of our buildings and our church programming.

The greatest opportunity that we have to reach the world is a community where God is at work.

That is the greatest witness to the gospel that there could be.

And I believe that because as I read the New Testament, that was their missional strategy.

If you read the book of Acts and you say, well, what were they on about?

What was their approach to reaching the world? I think their approach to reaching

the world was leaning into being the community that they were called to be.

Everything else flows from that.

The New Testament, if you read it, there's obviously a lot of cultural difference,

right? I mean, you can't miss that.

Because sometimes you'll see things that they did and said and thought,

and you'll be like, that's not how we think anymore.

They did not exist in the world that we live in, right? So granted,

they didn't have things like the internet or democracy or indoor plumbing or smartphones.

Lots of the things that we have that are really defining and central in our

culture they didn't have.

But for all the dissimilarities between our world and our culture and their

world and their culture, I still don't think we can improve on their strategy

for reaching the world. I just don't think it's improvable on.

No amount of technology or innovation is going to improve on the way that God

sent out the church and how it reached the world 2,000 years ago.

Most of the technological innovations over the last 2,000 years that we've seen

Have enabled the church, yes, to do a good thing Which is to broadcast its message further,

But for all of our innovation I don't think we are any more able to live out

the message of the gospel,

The way that the early church did 2,000 years ago.

And ironically, I think many of

us would recognize That actually our technological

innovation our inundation with constant messaging and media and our maximizing

of everything in our lives through efficiency has probably created conditions

in the world where we are maybe not less able but less capable,

let's say less competent of living out our mission as a community as people

devoted to one another because we are busier than ever and more distracted than ever or,

So, funny enough, I think our technology has diminished our ability to be the

missional community that we're called to be.

And I think that the realities of modern life, the stuff that we deal with,

have actually gummed up our missional imaginations.

Like, we really think, well, the only thing we need is a better communicator,

and then the gospel will go out. And it's like, we have the greatest witness

in the simple community of God, in the Holy Spirit at work amongst people.

If only we would attend to that, I think we would see great results.

A community that's called and set

in a place, I think, is a very effective witness to the gospel. It can be.

I will never tire of this quote from Leslie Newbegin, which I'm sure you've read before.

I'll just skip to the very end of it. He says, I'm suggesting that the only

answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, that is the only way that we can

explain the gospel to the world, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it.

This is one of my favorite theologians, and he just saw the condition of the

modern world and how we've been so distracted by other things,

and how it would be so much better for us to just attend to the community as

we've been sent out into the world and to be people who are just like doing

what the New Testament church did.

And in his book, John Tyson, he goes on, he lays out six marks of the church

that aims to be a creative minority.

That's like his approach, again, to missional engagement in the world.

And what I'm going to do over the next six weeks is use his marks of the missional

church as a way to sort of guide this series.

And so the first mark, just credit where credit is due, right?

I could tell you that I came up with this, but I didn't. That's all I'm saying.

I'm not that smart. The first thing that he points out to is covenant community, right?

This is part of being a creative minority is that a creative minority is a group

of people who are in covenant community.

It's a community, I think, defined by the contrasting qualities that it possesses

when we look at it compared to the world and natural society and natural connections.

Jesus really made this super clear, that the church is defined by a different

kind of set of relational qualities.

He said in John 13, 34, he says, I give you a new commandment that you would love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.

By this, everyone will know that you're my disciples, if you love one another.

See, what Jesus is doing is.

As he's sending out the church, he's sending out his disciples, he's

calling the church to exhibit through love

a kind of covenant community that is visible to outsiders to the point where

people will see the love being played out in depth and authenticity and commitment and investment.

And they'll look at this and they'll say, man, those people are Jesus people. They must be.

Because we know this Jesus guy is calling people to this maximum standard of love.

He's calling people to care about love above everything else if we read the New Testament.

And Paul says, without love, we're nothing, right?

So Jesus is calling his church to be the sorts of people who are exhibiting

love to the degree that other people will just say, those are Jesus people.

Those are the sorts of people.

And for sure, that kind of community is going to come through love.

Love but love is one of those squishy words right

that i think we can we can sort of just go

into greater depths you guys you guys know

my favorite definition of love is dallas willard's definition of love

he he says love is willing the good of others i like that because it gets unsquishy

a little bit more but if we wanted to define it out more i think if we if we

read the new testament we see the way that love is being played out in the new

testament we see a few particular ways that that is expressed and that everybody

who looked at the New Testament church was like, oh,

they're loving and they're loving in these ways.

So I think one of the particular ways is that there's deep bonds over loose connections.

Covenant community is distinct in this respect compared to the world,

that people have deep bonds over loose connections.

Yeah. I mean, again, read the book of Acts. You see that that's going on.

I mean, when the gospel goes out, what we see is that people,

they see the risen Jesus, right?

They believe that he's their savior, right? They come to know his grace.

They get adopted into this community.

And they're like a new creation as a result.

James talks about that. James 1, 18.

He's describing the work of God. He says, by his own choice,

he, God, gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be kind of first

fruits of his creatures.

So what's happening in the New Testament is that there's people who have these

deep bonds over loose connections, and it's not because suddenly they just decide

to lean into those things.

It's because what God has done is he's selected these people.

He said, these are people who are going to be like a new creation,

and as they express their love for each other, as they live in this new kind

of community, like they're the first fruits of the new creation, right?

And the firstfruits community is springing up, and it's a result of Jesus' work,

and the result is deep connection, deep connection with one another.

I mean, we see that in Acts 4.32.

You guys know this one. This is like the most, I think, extreme picture painting

of the deep connections that they have.

It says, The entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind.

No one claimed any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.

I mean, that is like a very wild, very new way of thinking about life in the world, right?

And it comes from this realizing the truth of the gospel.

And it comes from just leaning into what God is doing now.

Now, I don't think that this is the standard.

Don't take away from this message that what I'm asking you to do is to do this, right?

I mean, because that's like saying everybody just needs to be an Olympian, right?

That's what we all need to do. We need to be like Olympic-level quality people who love.

But I do think what I want to say is that when the church was most powerful,

it was when love was most expressed.

And where deep connection and care for one another was just being lived out

in a way that is unexplainable by any other means except realizing that God

is doing a really unique work among people.

He's freeing them from their fear

and their selfishness and all these other things he's

by the gospel inviting them into a new

kind of life and that life looks like not just like looking at other people

and the way that we do is like how convenient is this relationship for me you

know i'll be nice to this person to the extent that they're nice to me i'm just

kind of letting relationships happen.

What's happening in the church is that these people.

Coming, they're experiencing the deep love of God, which is bringing about a

security and a hope and a joy and anticipation of God's provision and kindness.

And it's leading them to this just total explosion of joy and rejoicing.

And it's being lived out collectively.

And it's making these people share this bond.

Because that's it. What brings all these people together is only this,

a common experience being saved by the love and grace of Jesus.

And they share that connection and that's transformative to them.

And honestly, I think the world is so desperate for this. This is the thing.

Okay, like you look at the world we live in.

This is the reason that we can't condemn the world because most people have the right desire.

They just have the wrong plan.

They want a good thing. Everybody wants deep connection.

Everybody wants to be known. Everybody wants to be accepted by their creator.

Everybody wants purpose and joy in life. We all share this.

And yet, sin makes it so we want the right thing, but we go about the plan in

the entire wrong way and we justify our behavior.

And so we put ourselves first instead of actually the true way of joy,

which is to just serve others in gratefulness and in kindness and to let the Lord take care of us.

We pursue our own desires and our pleasure through exploiting other people,

taking advantage of them, using them, even relationally.

And then once things go sour, just kind of casting people off.

But the New Testament church is like, we're called to live according to God's

ultimate plan and ultimate reality and the world that he's creating and will

ultimately bring about his kingdom come here on earth.

And so we're living like not that we no longer have the inclination to sin,

but we now have the truth about the way to actually find our deepest desires satisfied.

The whole world wants connection. The whole world wants deep-rootedness.

They just don't know how to have it.

We, through the forgiveness of sin,

through this way of Jesus that we're called to, the way of self-sacrifice,

the way of taking up our cross, the way of serving other people,

we're actually shown the right way to live life and to find deep connections.

So we can't condemn the world because they want the right thing. But we have to be people.

We have to be people all the more who are realizing, I know my deep desire.

I know the way I used to pursue that. I know that it came to nothing.

And I know now that I've actually realized that there is a much better way to

go about pursuing the things that I want, that are good, that God has created me for.

So I'm going to lean into those and I'm going to repent of the old way.

Repentance is just saying, that was a bad plan. Here's a better plan.

I'm going to lean into the better plan, which is that God has set me in a community.

And so I am going to find those deep bonds and connections. And I'm going to

cast off what is probably more comfortable to me to keep things on the surface.

And instead, I'm going to lean into a vision of greater depth and connection

in the church. Because this is the first fruits. This is the new creation.

This is the new order that Jesus is bringing about.

And so love is playing out in deep bonds. And I'll just say this,

and we'll just talk about this more.

That doesn't just happen. It doesn't just happen.

That's it. We are called to lean into, move towards, step into greater connection, deeper bonds.

It doesn't just happen passively, but it's an invitation that we have.

So that's one aspect of this kind of new community, this covenant community.

Another one is that there is inclusiveness over tribalism.

And again, what are the things that divide people in the world?

Their tribalism is that people divide up according to class,

education, politics, race, you know, all these things that we just say,

oh, these are the basis for us to be different.

They're the basis for us to separate. They're the basis for us to be in competition

with one another. They're the basis for us to judge one another.

But in Jesus Christ, like all of those things which previously divided people, they get washed away.

Paul talks about that in Galatians, Galatians 3.27.

Those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.

There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you belong to Christ, then your Abraham seeds, heirs according to the promise.

What Paul is doing is he's addressing the very normal, common,

worldly social divisions that happen.

They just happen by a means of, again, because we want to belong.

We want to feel connected with people.

And so we start to connect with people on the basis of our shared experiences,

of our thoughts, of our culture.

And so we then get very close with those people. It's not like this stuff.

I don't think the logic itself is sin. It's just when the strife comes in,

that's when it becomes sin, right? It makes sense that we would connect with people.

But what the gospel is, is the gospel is coming forward and says,

yeah, sure, normally you connect with people on the basis of shared culture,

shared experiences, like, you know, shared types of people, shared interests.

But here, everyone gets a shared experience. You are saved by the grace of God

because you did nothing but rebel in sin and God is kind to you.

And so you respond in Christ. And then instead of being clothed in,

you know, whatever, whatever thing that we divide in that I'm just, I don't know, what am I?

An average size, somewhat overweight guy who doesn't like to go to the gym,

but does it anyway, like every 40 year old, right?

Who I really like food. I'm really boring about it. People who ask me about

food will get an earful about pizza. It's the worst, right?

And I like to talk to other people about pizza, usually people from the East

Coast, because they understand.

You guys don't, you guys don't understand what you're missing.

And I can divide over those things, right? And those are stupid, right?

Stupid things to divide over. But actually, rather than dividing over these

crazy things, these silly things, we are united because we've been baptized

into Christ, clothed with Christ.

And so these secondary divisions, these divisions of culture,

these divisions of preferences, it's not that they disappear,

but they become very unimportant.

They become very unimportant, particularly in the light of the bond that we

share in Christ, the common experience that we have of being adopted into God's family.

So, like, you might think differently or have a different ethnic background

or understand politics or the economic landscape differently than a lot of people—.

The gospel tells us, those who have the shared experience of being in Christ,

that because we share a father in heaven and we share a brother in Jesus Christ,

because he has saved us and adopted us into the family,

that we have more that connects us.

And so we can be inclusive of all who are in Christ instead of having being

broken up into tribal divisions.

And this was the thing that was so remarkable when the church first came onto

the scene because the world was extremely tribal.

And I think it remains extremely tribal. We're just blind to our tribes anymore

because we live in the culture, right?

We're blind to the ways that we've divided anymore. But there is a kind of inclusiveness

and a connection that happens as a result of this new covenant community.

And the last thing, I think the last mark, at least the one that I'm going to

talk about this morning, is that there is supernatural unity over the place of natural preference.

And so, I mean, this has sort of been touched on in the earlier point.

I just think it's worth saying that the church is unified not by our natural

preferences, but by our common experience of being saved.

That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be people that I connect with more than others,

of course, like your natural preferences aren't going away, but it does mean

that you share with everyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ a supernatural

bond that is stronger than natural affections.

And I just want that to be said and for us to think about that.

C.S. Lewis has this little quote about friendship. He says, for a Christian,

there are, strictly speaking, no chances.

A secret master of ceremonies has been at work.

Christ, who said to the disciples, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you,

can truly say to every group of Christian friends, you have not chosen one another,

but I have chosen you for one another.

The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out.

It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of the others.

What I'm saying in this, and I think what C.S. Lewis is saying,

is that we oftentimes think that the way that we find people whom we're deeply

connected with, people whom we can love and share life with,

and we should have people like that, is through our discriminating tastes, right?

Through our ability to find the people who share the most natural bonds.

And that is normal and it's okay. And I'm not saying, oh, you know,

forget about people who you actually like to hang out with.

I'm not saying that. But I am saying this. I'm saying oftentimes we're placed

in relationships and friendships and we end up being surprised how we got there. there.

And if we are so closed off to the possibility that we might be surprised that

God could put us in a relationship with somebody, then we're closing ourselves off, I think, to his.

Willingness, his desire to unify us with people who are believers, right?

And yet who are different than we might expect them to be.

This is a difficult dance, okay, right? Because I don't want to tell you,

okay, you just have to be friends with everybody at church and that's,

you know, it's supernatural, it's not natural and just forget about this.

But I do think this, I think it's both and, but I think this thing needs to

be very clear in our minds.

Is that we are called to keep the bonds of love between one another in the church

and between other believers very seriously.

When I say covenantal community, I'm saying that we're understanding that our

community is not just driven by our preferences and our desires.

Our community is built on what

God has done, and so we take as holy the things that He takes as holy.

And so, like, I mean, look at what Paul says in Ephesians 4, 1 through 6.

He says, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the

calling that you have received,

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in

love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

There's one body and one Spirit, just as you were called, in one hope,

at your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,

who is above all and through all and in all.

What Paul is telling the Ephesian church is you're risking,

and it's kind of situational to what was going on in Ephesus at the time,

if you lean into tribalism, if you don't take seriously the calling that you

have, the calling that you've received,

and you don't accept that with humility, gentleness, and patience,

the calling to love one another and to be in community and relationship with

one another, then you risk trampling on something holy.

And so this is all that I want you to do. I don't want you to say,

oh, we all have to be equally amount of friends and connections with everybody.

But we do have to understand this, that we are called to love one another as

believers in a way that is really essential to our calling and our purpose in Jesus Christ.

We've been clothed with Christ collectively. We have one Lord,

one faith, one baptism, one God, Father of all.

And he is calling us together to love one another.

And so, look, here's the thing. I love this church. You guys are kind people.

You don't fight. I really like that.

Yeah it's funny i know that's no

fight some more no no don't

fight me yeah don't fight you guys you guys don't fight you guys aren't you

aren't super demanding of one another you're kind and yet

all of that said all those wonderful things about we have a

lot of growing in community to do like we have a lot of of of deepening of relationship

of deepening of love of holding on to unity as something that is good and valuable

and that we're called to lean into And that is such an important missional part

of our lives as we go into this new location.

Again, I think we can say, oh, it's a missional thing. We're going to do more

and we're going to have more programmings.

What I'm telling you is this, is that we better attend to our unity and to our love.

We had better attend to the fact that community is this loud proclamation in

a very lonely world of what God has done, can do, of how he is calling people

and doing a new work in people.

We are called to be people who are known by our love and our love for one another.

And I mean, I just, I saw a great example as, you know, Stephanie was injured

and like, we got an email and like, hey, this happened.

It's like, thank you first off, whoever sent in that email so that let us know this happened.

A lot of times I don't know things happen until far too late, right?

So one, that's like a great community thing. Like, talk to each other,

not in a gossipy way, But in a way, hey, this is going on and let's do something about it. Right.

So we were able to send out this this email. And I was like,

shoot, it's like a Tuesday.

I want to figure out how we meet their needs right away. Because the thing about

eating is you got to do it every day, at least.

And I was so blown away. Like like immediately, I think like six,

six days were all just filled up. I'm like, that's awesome.

That's great community. Like we're sharing each other's burdens.

That's a beautiful thing. And I was so happy to see that. And I thought,

shoot, we really need to lean into this more. We need to do more.

We need to take this seriously.

So I know you guys want this. I know this is something that you desire.

I think it's something that you're perfectly capable of.

I just wanted to do this is just paint a picture that there is yet more.

There can be more. And it's time, I think, for us as we make this move to step up and do more.

So the question of how do we build covenant community? Oh, I'm all right on

time. I thought this was going to go super long.

I have three points, just three practical points. The first is to be a table

setter, be a table setter. Okay, so here's what I mean by this.

The great thing about hosting a meal and about setting a table is that you also

get to sit down and enjoy the meal.

But if nobody sets the table, if nobody takes the initiative,

if nobody says, hey, come to my house at this point at this time or come to

this coffee shop at this point at this time or introduce yourself to this person,

like if nobody takes the initiative, it never happens.

People don't eat. They just eat fast food because it's convenient. Right.

So what I'm saying is is like just little little practical steps is if we all

take on this attitude of, OK, I'm going to be somebody who builds covenant community.

I'm just going to have the theological framework, which is say God really values

community. It's a really important part of mission.

And I can do simple things. I'm not just throwing out my whole world,

but simple things to start to continue to develop the bonds of unity,

the love that we're called to. You can be a table setter.

So if you see someone at church, if you're a left sider and you see a right sider, you don't know.

I am shocked sometimes when people tell me, I don't know the person they sit

on the right side. I'm like, this is not that big of a church, guys. It's not that.

You walk over there to get your coffee.

So break it up. Say, all right, I'm going to walk all the way over to the right side of the room.

And I'm going to say, hi, I've never met you before. And that's on me.

Just do that. That's a simple way.

It's not just even one of you guys. I've heard multiple people say that about

right side. I can't possibly.

Left side. Oh, no, it's too. I think that's funny.

I mean, I guess it's because I look at you guys. You guys aren't looking at

each other. So maybe that's part of it. I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Be a person who takes responsibility, who does the small thing,

the small thing of initiating something.

Don't say, well, they'll come and talk to me if they want to meet me.

No, they probably won't. They're thinking the same thing that you're thinking.

Just take the initiative, set the date, do the thing, introduce yourself.

If you want to get to know somebody you want to feel connected invite some people to coffee and,

People that I know that are just like the social, most social butterflies.

And I'm not like particularly one.

I think people think I am. I'm not. I like actually being alone a lot of the time.

But people who I know who seem to have the most deeply satisfying social lives,

like the connections, they're the ones who are always setting tables.

And you think if you did that for a while, you'd stop.

Like you would have built up the social capital where you could stop.

I just don't think ever, if ever it is, I don't think we ever can get tired

of the place of taking initiative.

And I think one of the great discouragements that can come into the church is

when we say, well, people should be doing this for me.

And I understand that. This happens in marriage all the time, right?

I mean, how many times are you like resentful of your spouse because they should

know already and they should be doing this thing already, right?

And then marriages break up because of that because people don't express those

things. Churches, same thing, same thing.

You say, well, people should be setting a table for me. Well,

yeah, Jesus came as a servant.

Like people probably should have been worshiping him pretty good,

but instead they crucified him.

So, you know, we're following after Jesus. We're living in the way of Jesus.

So we're people who are taking initiative to build up these bonds and it's part of it.

And being in the position of an initiative taker is part of it.

Number two, we can keep time. Okay, think about your finances.

We Dave Ramsey'd our budget like six months ago.

Probably need to do it again because you know how it goes, right?

But the thing about budgeting your finances, if you just say,

well, at the end of this month, if I have some money left over, I'll do X, Y, Z thing.

The thing is, you're not going to have money left over. That never happens, right?

You know when you have money left over to prioritize things is when you build it into your budget.

So what I'm saying is that we need to think about this with our time too,

because I mean, We have these practices that we, these become practices,

these discipleship practices, like one of them is to.

Eat with somebody you don't normally eat with two times a month, right?

And the thing is, I'm sure you've all experienced now at this point,

it'll never happen unless you build it into your rhythms, into your calendar, into your time budget.

It won't happen. There won't be leftover time. There won't be leftover meals in your life.

This is what we've done in the modern world. There was probably a time in life

where people like had less going on, but that's no longer the case.

And so if we're going to be intentional about community, like we have to keep

time. We have to put it on our calendars.

We have to budget time for community and for connection.

And that whole thing, that's meant to do that as a placeholder.

This is an additional thing on top of community.

I think if you do those practices, three of which are very community-focused,

I think you will feel more connected and more satisfied and more built into

a community. But you have to actually intentionally decide how you're going to spend your time.

And then the final thing as the worship team is coming up here is that we can

just be real. We can talk about real things.

I think sometimes we find conversations really shallow because we let them be

really shallow. And sometimes that's okay.

Like you don't need to have the most intense talk every single time.

But I think a lot of times people are like in this place where they're feeling

like I need someone to see. we need to like talk about something,

something that's going on.

And then we just like wait for people to ask us.

And man, isn't it beautiful when you have people who are just like in tune and

they ask, wouldn't it be nice if we were all that way? So let's all be that way.

Like, let's be the sort of people who, yeah, I mean, we have our normal conversations

and we talk about the weather. I mean, today was pretty great.

Let's talk about the weather, but let's also try to be real with one another.

Let's try to be real with one another.

Men are the worst about this. And yet it's so funny. I think so many men are

dealing with a lot of emotional pain.

They're dealing with a lot of hurt and hangups and things that like feeling like insecure.

And it's like, okay, we'll just talk about it. And honestly, there

are tools out there

that can help you to be real i've got

like some conversation cards in the back over here i'm ordering some more it's

part of our part of our community groups there's this they're building that

in there these conversation cards like sometimes learning to ask good questions

is just memorizing three good questions to pull out of your pocket whenever you need them.

That may sound wooden or feel like, oh, that's like a canned thing.

Shouldn't everything be authentic?

I think authenticity is just a lie.

Authenticity comes a lot more down to intention. So if you want things to get

real, then you should start to talk about real things.

And you should have a plan to get to it in a natural way in conversation.

Again, the people who I know who are most connected, they actually come into

a conversation with something of a plan.

Not in a not in an annoying way right but they

know like when there's a lull like let's they say

okay now is the moment to take

a next step and to go deeper and to get real and it might not always be the

the right time to do that but there are opportunities to do that another thing

is guys we're we're doing home groups those are starting up this upcoming week

yeah next week i guess and And it's a great place to be real.

It is literally a four-week focus on community. So a community group about community, right?

So if you're like, all right, where is a place where I can sort of like get

into some more realer, more deeper conversations and develop relationships?

There it is. I can't flatten this hand. There it is.

Like, it would be really great for you to be a part of one of those groups if

you want to be a part again. And Iskua on Sunday nights, Tuesday nights in Snoqualmie.

But again, this is one of these things where if we identify a longing that we

have for connection and for community,

we can just hope it comes or we can take steps to find it.

You don't have to be best friends with everybody. But if you're feeling lonely,

then number one, we can say this, and I think we can repent of this as a church.

It's like, oh, that's a collective failure, right? We should probably do a better

job of recognizing lonely people in our midst and caring for them.

Yes, and also, in both ends, we can also take steps towards community.

And again, to put a pin in this, not because it's nice,

not only because it's nice, it is, but because we have a sacred calling to live

as first fruits of the new creation.

This world where there's no longer tribalism and strife and division,

but actually there's just like the love, a loving society built around the person

of Jesus, like that he is going to come back and he is going to set up.

And we get to live into that now, more into that reality right now.

We get to participate into this new society, this new culture that is the church

built on love, expressed on love, being played out in love.

And that is the shining star in a dark night. That is the missional opportunity that is in front of us.

Again, I don't think we need better speakers, more intense messages.

Those things are all nice, like great, meaningful worship.

Yes, of course we want those things, but that is not the only thing we need.

I think actually the thing we need more than anything else is so much more fundamental.

It's so much more straight up in the New Testament where it's just a community

that is a covenant community that is missionally leaning into one another.

And so I want to call you to that as we step into where the Lord's leading us.

So we've got, we're going to worship.

We've got communion up here. So hey.

Again, community not founded on, oh, we like each other and it's so great.

We're founded around this table,

which is the table that Jesus set when he was about to be crucified.

He gathered his disciples together. Again, like a hodgepodge group of people

who had no business hanging out. People with very different politics.

People with very different theological ideas.

People with very different backgrounds. He gathers them together.

And he says, no, you're going to be my disciples and you're going to love one another.

And the thing that's going to be like this secure, the glue that holds you together

is going to be what I've done, my words, my work within you,

and my death and resurrection.

And so we're going to come, we're going to gather together. You're going to

come around, you're going to pick up the communion, you're going to take it back to your seat.

And between the songs, we will

take that together. So go ahead and do that while we're worshiping here.