Several weeks later this same small group was on a trip together. Over dinner one night they were talking about the Fellowship Church and the power of prayer. This woman, who was by that time going through chemotherapy, opened up her purse and inside her purse were those six communion cups. They all just broke down.
Friends, that would have never happened without community. It would have never happened without a small group connection. I want you to have story after story after story like that because you are experiencing a Christ centered community. Yeah, do the public thing but also the small group thing. Do that.
Well there is something else that I challenge you to do. This is something that God has shown me over the years when I have felt down or too focused on my dilemma or too busy throwing a pity party. Not only are we to take a jump into a Christ-centered community, but also we are to take a jump into the lives of others. I am talking about ministry within the local church. I define ministry as using our skill set in a strategic and spirit-led way. You have unique talent and I have unique talent and we are to use those talents within the context of the church. When we dive into ministry, we get our eyes off of ourselves and onto others. I am here to tell you, when people work in our preschool, our jr. high ministry or greet or usher or serve with the sound and technical group, the band or the praise team, they always say they get more out of the ministry than those they are helping. Think about it. You can support a Christ-centered community, plus get a huge growth spurt because of it. On top of that, you are taking your eyes off of yourselves and putting them on others.
I didn’t do any of that stuff, but I have been around it. I had to fight a couple of times just to survive. But I thank God for those experiences.
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