We Are the Church. Wednesday February 12, 2014.

This past weekend I was blessed to be a small group leader for our confirmation retreat.

There are a lot of things that happen on retreat.

Some fun things.

Some not so fun.

Some good crazy things.

Some bad crazy.

But always,

greater than all that,

is Christ.

Christ happens.

Christ moves,

people are moved,

people experience Christ.

We experienced Christ on a personal level.

We experienced Christ on a communal level.

We were created in the image and likeness of God

in order that we may know, love, and serve God.

I always think of this journey of

knowing, loving, and serving God as a solo journey.

Know Him all I can.

Love Him all I can.

And serve Him to the best of my abilities.

But it isn’t always a journey to be taken on our own.

The Acts of the Apostles tells us about the beginning of the Church.

It talks about the communal life.

From the get-go, the apostles needed each other in order

that they might best know, love, and serve Christ.

The retreat reminded me of this.

We all experienced Christ on a personal level this weekend,

but we had this experience within the community.

There is both comfort and power found in shared experiences.

It is comforting to know that if I slip and fall,

someone will be there to reprimand me to fix my eyes back on Christ.

There is power in knowing that others have the same goal in mind;

they have their hearts set on the same prize.

There is a reason there are support groups for weight loss and addiction recovery.

There is a reason that we gather each Sunday for church.

Community.

I know I am the last person who has the right to talk about community.

I almost always prefer to be alone.

I am an introvert by and large.

But even with that,

I have seen the benefits of community.

I now know why Christ gifted us with others.

There is so much joy to be found in the communal life.