Community Building Blocks: Community Foundations; Community Vision; Community Structure

By Gavin Farley

“A wise man who builds his house on the rock,
so that when storms come it will not fall”
Matthew 7:24

Building your Community needs to be built on good foundations. In the Community Building Blocks, we dig deep to laying down solid foundations so that the storms that will come will not destroy your community and that it will stand. What is it that we are building and why are we building it?? We look at important aspects of what is means to be a community. Once the foundations are laid, we set a clear common direction. The vision of your community is gaining a clear vision of where you want to go together as a community, having a common vision which everybody understands, and everybody can find their place and get involved. Establish your vision and set your goals to enable you to reach your vision. After you have set your vision design your structure and establish pillars that will help you to reach your vision.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385017522

Gavin Farley

Gavin Farley is married to Edith Farley and they have three grown daughters. Gavin was born and raised in South Africa, and came as a lay-missionary to Austria in 1991, where he served with Youth with a Mission for over 15 years. Edith, was born in Luxembourg and was involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. She studied Catholic Theology in Vienna and was instrumental in leading a youth group which grew to 100 young people. She was a Catholic Religious teacher in the archdiocese of Vienna. They both have been instrumental in leading discipleship training programs for young people. Gavin has helped to build communities all over Europe and has been instrumental in building the European Network of Communities (ENC) where he has served faithfully since its inception for the 25 years. They are currently part of the community ”Return to the Lord”. Gavin is vice-president of the European Network of Communities and is responsible for the ACTS ministry teams which are Apostolic Community building teams that are establishing and building communities in both Eastern and Western Europe. Gavin Farley Pyrsos Verein Bergengasse 6/7/4 A-1220 Vienna Austria/Europe www.pyrsos.at

Book preview

Copyright © 2024 Gavin Farley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

New International Version (NIV)

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1751-5 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1752-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024901460

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/10/2024

CONTENTS

COMMUNITY BUILDING BLOCKS I

COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS

Introduction A Call to Community Building

Chapter 1 Community: What Is It?

Chapter 2 Why Communities?

Chapter 3 Community Calling

Chapter 4 Community History

Chapter 5 Community Identity

Chapter 6 Community Values

Chapter 7 Community Purpose

COMMUNITY BUILDING BLOCK II

COMMUNITY VISION

Chapter 1 Building Your Vision

Chapter 2 Building Vision - Nehemiah’s Way

Chapter 3 The Power of a Common Vision

Chapter 4 A Vision of the Future

Chapter 5 Vision Statements

Chapter 6 Setting Your Goals

Chapter 7 Biblical Planning

COMMUNITY BUILDING BLOCK III

COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

Chapter 1 New Wine in New Wine Skins

Chapter 2 Cultivating a Culture of Creativity and Celebration

Chapter 3 Small Groups

Chapter 4 Community Service

Chapter 5 Giving Generously

Chapter 6 Apostolic Teaching in the Community

Chapter 7 Biblical Organisation

COMMUNITY BUILDING BLOCKS I

COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS

INTRODUCTION

A CALL TO COMMUNITY BUILDING

INTRODUCTION

A CALL TO COMMUNITY BUILDING

It was in 1986 when I packed all my possessions and collected all the money that I had managed to save, over the last five years of working at the Posts and Telecommunications head office in Pretoria, South Africa. I packed my backpack and left my home country of South Africa to become a missionary.

I had felt God calling me to do a missionary training school on board a hospital ship called the M/V Anastasis which was part of the Mercy Ships ministry which took the two hands of the gospel to the poor to port cities around the world.

I remember sitting in the plane as it took off. I kind of imagined myself stepping off a cliff. Leaving all the security of my family, my country, my job, and my friends, wondering what the Lord had in store for me. Where would this lead me too? Where will I end up? God gave me a picture in my mind’s eye as I flew from South Africa to New York city: I pictured myself in a circus tent as a trapeze artist. I was standing waiting to jump. God was on the other side hanging upside down swinging back and forth, His arms beckoning me and waiting for me to jump and to catch His arms. As I waited, I was naturally afraid as I knew that I needed to jump off at the right time otherwise I would miss God’s timing. Well, I did jump, and God did catch me on the other side. God then spoke three words into my heart. Protection; Provision and Power." I knew then that God was confirming His calling to me. He was promising me that He would protect me, He would provide for me, and He would give me the power that I so desperately needed.

The M/V Anastasis, was at that time in drydock in Victoria, Canada so I travelled by greyhound bus from New York stopping by and visiting various cities along the way, all the way to Los Angeles and then up to Victoria, Canada where the ship was docked to do my missionary training school.

In 1985 there had been a massive earthquake in Mexico which destroyed homes, schools, and hospitals. The ship was planning to bring God’s love and medical relief aid to this devastated country. God’s two hands at work, one caring for man’s physical felt needs and the other hand caring for man’s spiritual need.

After completing the three-month lecture phase of the Discipleship Training School in Victoria, Canada onboard the M/V Anastasis. Our practical missionary phase was to take place in this devastated country of Mexico.

Travelling on a South African passport during the Apartheid regime in South Africa was always going to be difficult. South Africa had been sanctioned and boycotted by many different countries, Mexico being one of them.

I was told that I wouldn’t be allowed to go to Mexico and was sent to our ship’s office in San Pedro, California near Los Angeles. It was quite frustrating being at the ship’s office, while the rest of my team had already flown to Mexico and were ministering there. I was stuck at the ship’s office waiting for a miracle, a visa to be able to go to Mexico. I felt that the Lord had forgotten me. I had to remind Him about His call and His promise to me on the plane when I left South Africa. Together with other ship office staff and of course my colleagues who were in Mexico were praying and trusting the Lord to do the impossible. to provide me with a visa to Mexico. I was told that my visa application was being processed and that they were waiting for approval, but also told me that since the Mexican government had no relations with the South African government, that the chances for me getting a visa would be impossible. We travelled many times to the Mexican Consulate to ask if a visa had been approved or not. Each time I got the answer. No! I became quite discouraged that even my many hours of prayer for a visa had not materialized. Where was God? I was waiting already for two weeks at our ship office. Our school outreach was only going to be for two months, and two weeks had already passed. However, we decided to visit the consulate again on Friday of the second week. We arrived and waited, yet again they said that it still had not been approved. I had already bought a flight ticket to Mexico in faith that I would be getting my visa. You can’t imagine how I felt when I was told that it had still not been approved. They said we should come back again just before closing time, at 12h00. We went for a prayer walk and returned just before 12h00. The time was running out, but we would give it one more time. We returned to the Mexican Consulate and as we arrived, they were already closing the doors for the weekend. The person who was closing the door had a Fax in his hand. The approval of my VISA had arrived. What a relief it was. As soon as I got my visa, I rushed off to the airport so I could catch my flight to Mexico.

Mexico City was alive and pulsating with life, the people were welcoming, friendly and happy. It was beginning to get hot as summer was approaching. I would come to learn about the warmth and the hospitality in Mexico which was Mi Casa es Tu Casa – My House is your house. The people were as warm as the weather outside. It was exciting to be there. Not only had Mexico experienced a terrible earthquake in 1985 but they were now hosting the 1986 World Cup soccer games.

You can imagine for me a soccer enthusiast. South African had never had the opportunity to see any major sporting events in my own home country, to then find myself, as my mother always put it You always fall into a tub of butter. Well, I truly felt like I had fallen into a tub of butter.

On one side we experienced the poverty in the hills of Mexico City and the desperate situation that the people were in, but on the other side we were immersed into the excitement and the spirit of the World cup soccer games.

Very quickly I was able to get in contact with some young Mexican students who were studying medicine, to become a doctor or a vet in Mexico City. We would watch the soccer games together and celebrate in the streets after each game. Eduardo, one of the students who would accompany us on our outreaches and act as our translator, became our friend and he was fascinated with our team, and we were fascinated with them.

During our missionary activity we visited a catholic parish in the hills of Mexico City. It was ravished by poverty and there were drugs and criminal activity all around. I was a little bit green behind the ears. We arrived in this parish I thought to myself, so this is what missionary life is all about. This was exciting, this was an adventure. We were a group of protestant missionaries who were going to evangelize the Catholics. We met with the parish priest Padre Navarro, a big man with an even bigger heart. He gave us a big welcome. I was surprised that he would invite a majorly protestant missionary organisation to come and evangelize in his Parish. Coming from South Africa I really didn’t know anything about Catholics. I had one friend who was catholic and wanted me to attend his confirmation classes with him, but that was quickly prohibited by my parents. I didn’t think Catholics were even Christians. In our introduction to the local parish, which Padre Navarro gave he said You can come to my parish, and you can see many problems here and there are many bad things which are happening in my parish, but you can also see many precious people who are hungry for God and who love the Lord in my parish. However, my question to you is what do you want to be? A rubbish collector or a treasure finder. That really sat deep in my heart. I knew what was going on in my heart. I was seeing all the things that were wrong in this parish and all the things that I felt were wrong in the Catholic church and that God had sent us here to bring everything in order. I had agreed with him that there were a lot of things that were not right in his parish and I as a protestant missionary thought I had all the right answers. But that day I recognized how proudful my attitude was and that day I decided to always want to be a treasure finder and not a rubbish collector.

And what a treasure I found! The people were so lovely and beautiful. Friendly and would always invite us into their most humble homes. We were always invited in for a meal. I was totally overwhelmed by their friendliness and the joy that they had despite their destitute poor situation. We attended the Catholic mass. I had never been to one. I didn’t know when I needed to sit, kneel, or stand. But it seemed to me that they were always really pleased when the mass came to an end. Because it was only then that they erupted, rejoicing, and praising the Lord. Usually in the church that I was a part of we would start with the praising. But I felt the presence of God so strong, there in that Catholic mass. God was truly at work in this Catholic church up in the hills of Mexico City. I can still remember that I would sit in front of the altar and the blessed sacrament where I would have my quite time in the mornings. There was such a peace, and the Spirit of God was very strong. Some of my best times before the Lord were there in front of the altar. I didn’t know about what Catholics believed about the real presence of the Lord in the host (the Eucharist). All I knew that God was there, and He was meeting me, speaking to me, and pouring out His love on me. It was beautiful, an experience I would never forget. I enjoyed and soaked up the presence of God. God was tugging at my heart. He was doing something in my heart – I didn’t quite understand what it was. This is not supposed to be happening to me – I mean I was in a Catholic church filled with icons, a statue of Mary and God’s presence was very real. I fell in love with the people there and I fell in love with this little catholic parish.

After our time in the Parish, we returned to the busyness of Mexico City. The World cup soccer games were at its peak. We would travel to the stadiums where the soccer games were being held and we would do street evangelisation before the games. We met people from all over the world. Many of the people I happened to meet and ministered to were from catholic nations. Suddenly, another world had opened before me. Before I had hardly recognized or known Catholics and now there were people from all over the world who were Catholic. Weather they were from Brazil, Argentina; Chile; Italy or Spain. I was totally amazed. I asked myself, God what are you trying to say to me?

The highlight of our time was when Eduardo our translator who had been with us for most of our outreach, decided to give his life to the Lord. We had watched the soccer games together; we had celebrated together in the streets each time Mexico won a game. We had done evangelisation together and now amidst all the activity and most of the time the chaos. Eduardo came to know Jesus at one of our team meetings in a personal way. He had gone to church most of his life, but this was the first time that He had a personal encounter and decided to invite Jesus to be the Lord in his life. The first person that I led to Jesus at the beginning of my missionary journey. I was on cloud nine, God was moving, and I was right in the middle of it.

After our outreach in Mexico, we moved south to the port city of Lazaro Cardenas where we would continue our Outreach. This is where the ship was due to arrive to bring much needed relief supplies and do some medical operations which poor people could never afford. This city was also affected by the earthquake and many schools, and the hospital was no longer liveable. So, we were going to do some rebuilding.

While we were there, we got to know many different types of people from very different walks of life, both rich and poor. I saw a people who were hungry after God. We would of course invite them to attend our bible study group which we started. Very soon more and more people started to attend. We taught them everything we knew. How to read the bible? How to have a personal time with the Lord? The Fathers love and how to pray and do intercession? It was great. After a while we would ask the local people to lead the Bible study group. They did and slowly but surely the group carried on by itself. These were all Catholic believers, and we were just doing the best we knew. We had tried to make contact to the local priest however this was very cordial. We would also attend mass from time to time, but this was nothing like the mass that I had attended in Mexico City.

We did what we knew but we knew we needed some help or training. How could we as protestant missionaries minister and serve Catholics in a Catholic culture which we had difficulty understanding?

We had heard about a man within our mission organisation Youth with a Mission who was working with Catholics in Austria, Europe. His name was Bruce Clewett. We decided to listen to a series of teaching he had on tape cassettes about working within a Catholic environment. I can remember very clearly that I didn’t want to listen to these cassettes. But as I listened to the cassettes God started to open my understanding to the Catholic culture and what they believe. I was amazed that we protestants talk a completely different language from Catholics. No wonder we had difficulty understanding each other.

A whole new world that I had discovered on this missionary journey was slowly becoming understandable to me. However, we were constantly coming up against some resistance as there was still mistrust and misunderstanding that existed between us. There seemed to be a wall between us which we could not overcome.

Once our mission was completed in Mexico, it seemed that God was calling me to another country. I had become known on the ship for being part of the advance team - the team that would go ahead of the ship to prepare the relief and development, Medical and agricultural projects from the ship. Our next project was going to be Jamaica. We stopped by Jamaica on the way to the USA. While we were in the USA, Hurricane Gilbert had just blown over Jamaica and had devastated the island. However, again I was not admitted as a South African into Jamaica. I worked in the different ports of the gulf coast of USA raising the necessary finances & relief supplies needed for Jamaica.

After helping Jamaica, our next nation we were going to, was the beautiful island of Dominican Republic. I was again sent ahead of the ship to prepare the different relief projects and the arrival of the ship. Again, I was confronted with the main religion there being Catholic. We again tried to work with them, but again there seemed to be a wall that existed between us. I saw a people who were hungry for God and hungry for the word of God. The people we met were open and very hospitable even though many of the people we served were very poor. They gave what they had to make us feel welcome.

I was starting to be suspicious of the Lord. What was the Lord doing in me? Why was He constantly sending me to these Catholic nations? Was He trying to get my attention?

I had always felt an attraction to the culture of nations like Italy, France, Spain, Brazil, Argentina all Catholic nations, and I really felt that God wanted me to go to these Catholic nations.

However, it wasn’t until the ship decided to set sail to Europe. Our mission in the Dominican Republic had come to an end and our next outreach nation was going to be to the nation of Poland. Again, the ship wanted me to be involved in the advance preparation work. Oh no – another Catholic Nation!!! God had certainly got my attention now. Poland had just overcome the communist regime. The polish Pope John Paul had been instrumental. I arrived in Poland just after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1990. This had really been a miracle and we were going into Poland to encourage the Church. There were some small protestant churches but of course the majority of Poland were Catholic. We were able to make many contacts with both Protestants and Catholics. We found many Charismatic Catholics there from the OASIS movement.

It was an amazing time where we were able to take the Gospel to the streets of Gdynia, Gdansk, and Sopot. We called it a cultural exchange. We exchanged our experience with God. It was great to meet with the Catholic Charismatics and we recognized that we had a lot of things in our faith that we had in common with each other. It seemed that this OASIS movement was a real outpouring of God’s spirit in the Catholic Church.

I really started to sense that God was calling me as a protestant to work in the catholic nations of the world. I realized I still didn’t know much about the Catholic church. I knew I still needed to learn. That was when I started to get into contact with Youth with a Mission in Austria where I could learn from Bruce Clewett who also worked as a Protestant amongst Catholics.

It was in June 1990 that the World Cup soccer games was going to be held in Italy. I knew I had to go there. The outreach team on board the ship organized a team to travel to Italy for the World Cup Soccer Games outreach. Well needless to say we encountered many Catholics there and even worked together with a protestant missionary who was committed to pray in front of the Vatican for the Pope every day. This was really an amazing phenomenon that I was encountering. Protestants sensing a call by God to serve and minister to Catholics within the Catholic Church. How can this be?

In September 1990 I arrived in Vienna Austria to join the Youth with a Mission team in Austria. I was a South African who had been living a missionary life with many poor people. Suddenly, I was confronted with a very affluent society and I kind of felt out of place. However, the team welcomed me, and I was invited to their apartments, and we would have fellowship together. I was quite amazed as it seemed like there was always a reason to celebrate. Many of the Youth with a Mission workers were Catholic. It was quite amazing that here was a mission organisation that had both Catholic and Protestants working side by side. It wasn’t long when I started to hear about a Catholic Youth Prayer group where many young people were giving their lives to Jesus. The group was growing, and the leaders were being over challenged in leading the group. So, they approached Youth with a Mission if they could help them in any way. The group had apparently grown up to over 100 young people.

Youth with a Mission had always been good at running discipleship training programs for young people. So, a discipleship training program was put together to offer this youth group to help the group become more established in their faith. The discipleship program consisted of eight weekends that covered the typical themes that are covered at the Youth with a Mission discipleship training school. Each weekend was carefully planned, and enough time was given between the weekends so that they could practice that what they had learnt.

Well, I had the opportunity to visit such a weekend to see what was happening. I was totally amazed at the openness that these young people had to the Holy Spirit. As they learnt they also desired to put that what they had learnt into practice, almost immediately.

These were all Holy Spirit filled young people on fire for Jesus and they were Catholics.

This was exciting to see.

Not only were they learning to follow Jesus they were also actively involved in Evangelisation. Sharing their faith with their friends and even going on mission trips together. At their meeting they would then often invite people to give their lives to Jesus.

I had only witnessed this in protestant and free churches. I had never experienced this in a Catholic Church. God was doing something very special.

There were two catholic theological students who were leading the group. One had only recently come to a living personal relationship with Jesus, the other had been involved with a catholic charismatic group in Luxembourg and was now studying in Vienna.

They were both very much on fire for Jesus and they were leading these young people to Jesus. The Holy Spirit had been so strong that the Holy Spirit would touch the young people in the Worship time even before they started sharing from the word of God.

During the Discipleship training program there was a certain sense of belonging together and wanting to join themselves together in a committed way. So, it was decided that there would be a further training that would be offered for the leaders and to lead the youth prayer group to become a community within the church.

This was something which we believe God was doing. It seemed to be His initiative and we had the privilege of seeing this happen. This reminded me of the time after Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles where after the outpouring of the spirit happened it seemed that God lead them into the forming of communities.

They had a strong desire to have fellowship, for prayer, to hear teaching from the Holy Scriptures, they would have the Eucharist together, they have wonderful fellowship together. They were excited and on fire for God. It seemed to me like a community after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They were experiencing community – Koinonia.

•What is then community? What is Koinonia?

•Do we really need community today?

We will look at these questions in the next chapter.

THE COMMUNITY BUILDING BLOCKS

COMMUNITY BUILDING BLOCKS I

COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS

CHAPTER 1

COMMUNITY: WHAT IS IT?

COMMUNITY BUILDING BLOCKS 1

COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS

CHAPTER 1

COMMUNITY: WHAT IS IT?

We all seem to have different views of what Community is. If I were to ask different people What is a community? I would probably get a variety of answers.

Community in a small village

If I was in a small village out of the major cities of the world it could be that the people living, there would consider that they have a community with one another. Why? Because they have over time developed a certain kind of relationship with one another and have developed friendships and have gone through many joys and hardships together. If anyone needed something, they would help each other out. This is in a way community is lived out in a very practical way within a small village. They have experienced something in common with one another, which has in a certain way bonded them together.

Community in a social club

This is very similar to any social or sports Club. The people come together for a certain purpose. They enjoy playing tennis or table tennis, badminton whatever the sport is, and they enjoy the sport together. Over the time of socializing, enjoyment and friendship, a community atmosphere is developed within the club. So, if I were to ask a person in such a club What is Community? they would say that their community is in their sports club because that is where they experience community. They have a relationship with one another, and they have something, which they do together, they have something in common.

Community is a certain lifestyle.

In the 1960s among the Hippy generation, they had a way of life, which was very attractive for many young people at that time. It was at the time of the Vietnam war. These young people wanted to free themselves from all authority and have Love, Peace, and No War. So, the slogan was: Make love not war. These young people would live as nomads, and they lived in communes together. They would have all lived under one roof, living together in community. They would even share their resources if they had any. They literally in a very real way, experienced community. They lived together and they had a common way of life. So, what is Community?

Christian Community

When we speak about a Christian Community there would be a variety of different ideas. Some would say a Christian community is a group of people 10-20 or even 30 people living together in a large house or on a farm. We get this from the Amish people who would decide to live together in a specific way that is very different from the world around them. This is an extreme example of a very specific kind of community. Other people would think that a Christian Community is a group of Christians who put their finances together in one purse or pot and then work with that, as it was mentioned in the first communities.

"And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing.

the proceeds to all who was in need." Acts 2:44 -45

Monastic orders

Some communities are consecrated and belong to a religious or a monastic order where all the members have a specific calling and who live together in community according to a specific rule. They would live in a certain way, according to a certain rule, dress in a certain way and live for a certain purpose. They have dedicated their lives to live in this way.

Local community

Others perhaps would also see their local church or parish as their community because this is where they would come together, get to know each other and there would a sense of belonging to one another. Others will say that in their small group or house group, where they would come together, that this is the place where they would experience community.

Early Christian Communities

The early Christian communities of the 1st century were formed after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost throughout Asia Minor.

Charismatic Communities

With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the 1960’s and 70’s during what is known as the Pentecostal or Charismatic Renewal movement within many different churches, also within the Catholic Church we have seen another type of lay community established.

Many of these charismatic communities consisted of lay persons who have secular jobs and have families who do not necessarily live together under one roof or on the same property, nor do they put all their possession or money into one pot. But they do have something in common together. They have a certain calling and have a certain set of values together. They have a specific purpose and way of life together. This was something which the Holy Spirit had initiated, that there are people who were willing to live and desire a community lifestyle. Even though in our secular society we are separating ourselves from one another and are becoming more and more independent and isolated. God has created us to be social and desire relationships, love, and community.

The Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18

It is not good that man is alone.

God knew that it is not good that man is alone. As our society becomes more and more individualistic and selfish, we have difficulty with having healthy relationships. This is perhaps why there are so many Internet platforms today to help people to get in contact with one another. The family unit seems to be also having difficulty and are breaking apart which results in many people being isolated and very much alone. We all may desire relationships however at the same time we see a break down in our relationships and we do not experience community.

This happens not in our families but also within our communities where we live, in our Church congregations and in our Christian communities. People are becoming more and more isolated without any connection to a network of friendships or support structure.

This is many times the cause of mental illness and depression within our society. God did not wish for us to be without relationships and a net of healthy friendships.

We see throughout the Old Testament that whenever sin entered the world, there was a breakdown of relationships. When egoism, envy and jealousy show itself there is a destruction of relationships. Starting with Adam and Eve to Cain and Able to Jacob and Esau and then Joseph. Jesus came to restore our broken relationships.

When we enter a personal relationship with Jesus, we become part of a larger family. We become part of the people of God. We belong to Him and become part of His people together with others who belong to Him. We therefore are connected, and we are joined automatically in relationship with all other Christians. God desires to bring all those who believe in Christ together as the people of God. (1 Pet. 2:5-10) When we enter this new relationship, we have a new Father and we are part of a new family, the family of God. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord, one in Spirit, one in mind and purpose (1 Cor. 1:10). We become part of the body of Christ, one body together with others. (1 Cor.12:12). When we enter in a relationship with God, He leads us to join ourselves to other Christians as the people of God, to be "the family of God" and to be the body of Christ together.

Christian Community is the way people relate to one another and can join themselves to one another. Let us look at these different aspects from the Holy Scriptures says about this.

A Christian Community……

1.…as the people of God.

2.…as the family of God.

3.…as the body of Christ.

4.…a fellowship - Koinonia

5.…living a Koinonia Lifestyle.

We will discover the meaning of each of these types of relationships.

1. COMMUNITY AS THE PEOPLE OF GOD

In the Old Testament we read, how God formed the People of God under the leadership of Moses. This was clearly a work that God did. God worked through a man whom He called to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery to a land that God had promised them. The people of Israel were set free with the occurrence of many miracles which God performed. This confirmed that God was behind it. God opened the Red Sea, the Israelites crossed over to the other side, their enemies were drowned as the waters covered them.

Once on the other side God calls Moses up to Mt. Sinai where He receives the Ten Commandments. These Ten Commandments were a set of values by which His people were to live by. God establishes a covenant with these people and enters a covenant relationship with them. This is when the relationship changed. Before they were called a nation or the people of Israel but now after entering a covenant they were called the people of God. They became "His people," a people belonging to God. They were set apart for Him. God calls them my treasured possession and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

⁴ ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although