Teach Community

Recently, I’ve realized that a theme has been cropping up to much of my reading, my podcast-listening, and my conversations. I must be in a certain place in life where God has started to push me in a certain direction, but I may have been to daft to notice it.

My husband and I made a decision when we started thinking about having kids (I know, this is related, I promise). We decided that we wouldn’t stop our social life just because I was pregnant, or because we had added a member to our family. For us, that meant going out to events or dinner or drinks with friends, of course, but what it really meant for us was continuing to have people over to our house. We’ve always had friends over for dinner more than once a week, inviting new friends, bringing together old friends, and hosting our families in our home. It helps that my husband is a great cook, but we have always love having our home be a place where people can gather, and we didn’t want that to stop when we suddenly had another person that needed to be planned around.

Which brings me to the point of connecting these two thoughts. We’ve always had the desire to have lots of people and lots of good conversation in our home. And recently I’ve listened to two podcasts (unrelated, not necessarily topical) about gathering people into your home/life and it’s a running theme in two of the books I’ve been reading. It’s also been a theme in the church plant that I’m a part of, and a new job I just took at a local non-profit.

See? I told you I was daft to not get it until now.

But I’m noticing that even more than usual, I am called to build community. Relationships. Connections. Yes, it looks different in each area of my life, but the goal is the same. Make meaningful connections. Help build relationships. Create a space for community to happen. On top of those things, I have a desire for people to feel welcome and wanted. I want them to feel like they are a part of something bigger.

Because at the end of the day, we are. We are a part of something bigger. We are an integral part, each of us, of the tapestry that God is weaving throughout humanity. We are lost souls, left to wander, if we don’t know about His loving pursuit of us. He has a great destiny for our lives if we would come into His family and follow Jesus.

Jesus was the ultimate community builder. He gathered people from far and wide and welcomed them. Even people who had no business being near him, right? People who were shunned were welcomed at his table, into his life and his ministry. What more important thing could I let my children witness as they grow up? I want them to know intrinsically how important community is, to see it firsthand. My hope is that they will see the theme of community woven throughout their lives as well, and will, in turn, welcome people to their homes and pour into their own communities. It’s a part of what we’re called to do.