Common Needs

Ecclesiastes 4.

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:10 If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Last month one of my college buddies and his family came to visit us. It’s so great to have some folks in your life that you know, if push came to shove, if you really had no were to turn, and things were that bad, you could just say, "I need you," and they’d be there. Well, Sam is that kind of friend. When Robin and I were dating, and I was plotting my proposal, Sam and his wife Kim, me and Robin decided to go on a 3 day back packing trip. It was August. The hottest month of the year in our hemisphere. And I had a lot of camping experience. I can rub two squirrels together and make a fire, then roast the squirrels and eat them. (Squirrel is actually really good- I’m not joking.) It was HOT, so I figured, I’m gonna be carrying a lot of rock climbing equipment and other stuff, so I’m going to just take my sheet bag. My sheet bag was my brilliant idea that you don't really need a bulky heavy sleeping bag in August, you just need a sheet. So I sewed up a sheet into a bag, and off we went. We hiked all day and then found a beautiful spot to make camp. We made a fire, we ate a nice meal. The sun set, the fire died down, and they crawled into their bags, the three of them, and I, well, I crawled into my sheet. And then I got up and put on an extra t-shirt, and tied one around my head, and pulled by backpack up on me, and some climbing gear, and started stuffing leaves into my sheet bag, and I don't think I slept a wink that entire night. And in the morning, when they all awoke from their cozy slumber, I was already dead. They asked, "How’d you sleep George?" I informed them that it was only a slight exaggeration to say I froze to death.

And after another day hiking, that next night, because Robin and were not married yet, and because I knew Robin could not keep herself off of my now sweaty, dirty, stinky body after two days of hiking, my dear friend a brother in Christ Sam let me share his sleeping bag with him, and I slept very very well that night.

Now some of you respect me more for not sleep with Robin, some think less of me for keeping warm with Sam, all of you can agree that I’m an idiot for only taking a sheet bag with me, but I learned that night, how can one keep warm alone? But if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

We need to people. We work better in community. We get a better return. We can do more work, better work, when we work with another. In regard to the work of our church, to work of connecting with people who share a common need of God, we can not do this alone. The job is too great, the numbers too many. We need to do this together and get a better return. We need community because we fall down in life. We stumble, we fall, and it’s hard to get up. We need people at times in our life to pick us up from under our arms and to be our strength and get us on our feet again. WE need community to keep warm at night. In the darkness, in the cold, when we only have a sheet bag in life, we need community. When we are attacked, we need someone to have our back.

Folks, a cord of three strands can not quickly be broken. let me remind you of the three strands that how our Connection Groups together. Common Purpose, Place, Possessions. This flows directly out of the teaching of the bible and the way that the church came into existence. I hope that if your a regular and involved with Connections this passage is now very familiar to you,

Acts 2:42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The church had a purpose: devoted to God, to one another, to their neighbors, guided by scripture in everything. They had a place- they meet in worship at the temple, or for us a theatre, and they meet in homes. They were in such strong solidarity with one another they actually shared their possessions- giving so that the church flourished, and no one was in need. When we weave these strands together the strength of the church is UNBREAKABLE! The impact of this type of church, this type of community, was so astonishing that the church grew daily- people saw the witness of the church, were touched by the church, got involved with the church, gave their life to Jesus, got saved!

Today I want to talk about our purpose, and our purpose we break down in to three parts as well: to belong, to grow, to serve. I want to talk about how these three stands will make for an unbreakable and incredible experience in your life.

Our groups help us to fulfill the need to Belong. We all have a deep need to find a place of belonging. You need a place where you are you, and you are part of something bigger than yourself, you are so intimately a part and involved that when you are gone, the group says, we miss Joe, where is Mildred, has anyone heard from Dorkas (Yes, that really is a biblical name). At the same time, the one absent is saying, dag, I miss my group, I miss my friends, I want to be there.

1 Peter 2: 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
You’ve had that experience of stepping out of a dark theatre and into the light, and it hurts, it burns, you cringe and want to retreat back into the darkness, back into this theatre? We get so comfortable with the darkness sometimes, that we cringe from the light. We get so comfortable living outside of community and connection and true belonging to others that when we begin to step into it, our immediate reaction is to want to retreat.

Here’s the thing about this, here’s why you need this, and what I want to convince you- if you don’t think you need a place to belong, it’s because you have grown too accustomed to the dark, and the light of community, of belong, scares you. You have never had a place to belong, because once you have found a place of belonging, once you’ve experienced life together, as opposed to life in isolation, you realize that you can’t live without it. Once you come into the light, you may want to retreat to the dark at times, but you know, you know, life in the light is better.

I remember my coffee conversion experience. I had just gone off to college, but came back home for my birthday for a weekend. My uncle Ted bought me a coffee grinder, some beans, and a coffee drip. I opened it, I probably had that look, of oh, gee, thanks. But I don’t really like coffee. My uncle ted said, no George, you haven’t experienced coffee. I said sure I have, they have these big vats of coffee in the dining hall and the stuff tastes like- CRAP, he said. Yeah, that stuff is garbage. Here, let me show you how it works, let me help you experience coffee. SO we put the water on, ground some beans, poured the water on. He talked me through the whole process, he was firm, but he was a gentlemen. I breathed in the aroma, it was actually pretty good. We poured the cup. He recommended a little cream for a beginner like me. He warned me, the taste would shock me at first, but give it time. I sipped, I cringed, it was almost too much for my young virgin taste buds. He encouraged me to drink slowly. To savor the taste. With each sip I grew a little more accustomed to this new flavor. I went from doubt, to shock, to acclimation, and eventually, by the end of that cup, I was converted. I was hooked. I was and have been ever since a full-on coffee junkie. I need the stuff, i don;t think I can life without that black, bold, rich nectar of the gods. I’m getting dangerously close to idolatry!

Belonging in community is the same. It’s not that people don’t need it, it’s more that they have never experienced it, or just cheap lousy tasting knock-offs and excuses for real belonging. But once they do, they will become a believer. But the process can be difficult. I was converted to coffee in one cup, but belonging to community, belonging to the body of Christ, that often takes time because it is so radically different that the experience of so many lost in isolation and estrangement from community. People will literally cringe at their first taste of community. The will want to pull back and withdraw. They will slowly acclimate. But over the course of time we will say, how did I ever manage life without this deeper sense of belonging- belonging to Christ, belonging to a church, belonging to a group of people, belonging to something bigger than myself.

Just last weekend I was picking up some diapers and stuff for our second harvest ministry at my father in laws house. I always block out an hour or 2 when I drop by Dan’s house, because you are not going to get out of Dan’s house very easily. I load up my van with stuff and then I’m saying to myself, wait for it, it’s about to come... Boom, George, can you say for a cup of coffee- yes Dan, I am a coffee convert! We start to visit, then Dan says, there are some things I wanted to talk about with you George. And I’m like, oh great here it comes, the uncomfortable Father-in-law, son-in-law conversation, with the added discomfort that I’m his pastor, and he wants to talk with me about something. So I think, I can come up with any number of excuses right now. I’m a busy guy, I’ve got things to do, a church to run, heck, I just want to go and avoid the discomfort of this conversation. But I think to myself, you know, we kind of belong to each each other, I married his daughter, she now belongs to me, I am his pastor, we are in this together, so we go through it. And it’s stuff that none of us like. But if we belong to each other, and if we don;t want to live in the dark, but bring things into the light, and really really really have genuine belonging, then its good. And it was good. And we talked. Then finally I said Dan, I’m a very important guy, and I have a church to run, and people to shepherd, and I gotta go. But thanks for this talk. Thanks for wanting to live in the light.

You need a place to belong. You need a place to grow. Belonging says that we love you, we accept you, we embrace you just as you are. Growing says we love you so much we don;t want to see you stagnate and die. We love you too much to say I’m OK, you’re OK, let’s just all get along! Not reality folks. I’m not OK, you’re not OK, we have trouble getting along. But if we turn to Jesus, if we belong together in community, we can start growing and figuring out how we do this together. I will say this- I believe that foremost our groups are about belonging and this sense of community. But we need something more to move a group forward. We need something to guide us more than the people of the group. We need to be guided to grow in God.

Colossians 1: 28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. We have a trajectory for groups to follow- to become more Christ like. People need to grow, groups need to grow. But we need to know what grow looks like. We need to know what the trajectory of growth is to be. So we have a common authority in the bible to direct our growth. Most groups, the standard group model we use, is to play off of the Sunday worship text and topic. The group takes time to be in God’s word together, to read over the texts, to grow in biblical knowledge, and to discuss what they are learning together. In fact, will say this- you will experience exponentially more growth getting into a group rather than just coming to worship. Here is where we hope you can be inspired to love God, to celebrate him, to confess to him, to renew your commitment to him- all that. This is about inspiration. But it is going to be in your group where you will experience personal involvement. You’ll be inspired here, but you get involved there. And when you decide to make that step in your spiritual formation, then you have positioned yourself for growth at a rate in a way that honestly, this just can’t touch.

We are still growing and evolving as a church, and as we do I believe this will come into more clarity, but let me say this- we are working on developing a picture of what that growth will really look like- First, and this is the easy part, we want you to grow in your THEOLOGY-in knowledge- your knowledge of the bible. You’ll learn about the big picture of the bible and the foundations of Christian faith and believe. You’ll learn about the creation, the fall, God’s plan of redemption, and the final plan of creation. You learn about God: father son and holy spirit. You learn the attributes of God the father. You’ll learn about the savior and our Lord Jesus Christ, his life, his ministry, his death and resurrection, his ascension, his return, he eternal reign. You’ll learn about the person and work of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the spirit, the fruits of the spirit, the gifts of the spirit. You’ll learn learn about the nature of humanity. You learn about the nature of our sin. You’ll learn about the plan of salvation. You’ll learn about the church.

Second, and this gets a little harder, you’ll grow in your THEO-PRAXIS- your practice of actually being in Christ and in being the church- of worship, fellowship, evangelism, mission and service. You’ll learn about the practices of the Christian life- of prayer and fasting and giving and stewardship.

Last, and perhaps most personal and most difficult, You’ll grow in you own personal CHARACTER in the body of Christ. And I’ve only just scratched the surface folks. But over time we will bring more clarity and structure to our program so that you can put yourself on a course of growth in your formation in Christ. Growth is good! Healthy things grow. Dying things don;t grow. This is part of the purpose of these groups - to grow in Christ together.

To belong, to grow, and finally, to serve or reach out. 1 Peter 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. Everyone one of us has something to offer to other people. Everyone of us is called to use the gifts God has given us for other people. We have been blessed to be a blessing. That the way it goes. More, we think serving and reaching out happens best when we do it as community. This is where get the best return on our work.

There’s a lot to say about, but here’s what it boils down to- we have decided to jump start the reaching out and service element of each group. My wife has made a contact with the London Food Bank and now each Connection Group has been asked to organized themselves to find a date and time to meet at the food bank, learn about their operation, and to help sort food and supplies for 2 hours on a weeknight or on a Saturday. So there you go. No more excuses. No more talk saying we really should do something. Everyone is full of good ideas and hopes and dreams. We have gone ahead and committed our church and our groups to actually do something. it’s a small thing, but maybe a thing that otherwise you would not do. A thing that might spin off into actually doing some other projects.

Belong- grow- serve. That is what the purpose of these groups are all about. We believe you need these purposes in your life. We believe you need this. I want to encourage you to make a step toward connection today.

If you look at that CG Catalog you’ll notice we have 9 groups formed and ready to go. At the very minimum groups have a host and a facilitator, that means we have at least 18 folks on board to provide leadership to these groups. But I’ll tell you that most groups have more- they have a team of hosts and teachers working and preparing a place for you. We have about 30 people involved in leadership in groups at some capacity. You’ll notice that we will also sign up as many as 20 people per group to start. If you do the math real quick, you’ll see that we have space for nearly 200 people in Connection Groups. You’ll also notice that at this stage Connections, when we’re all here, is a church of about 200 people. Huh, coincidence? I think not.

This is by design and desire. We are so committed to community, to home groups, to developing relationships and developing leaders that our teams has literally worked for hours and days and weeks to create a system, a structure for groups that has the potential to reach everyone, EVERYONE who comes to Connections and more.

If you are still exploring Jesus and what it really means to be follower of his, getting into a group is going to be like caffeine jolt in your journey. If you are a follower of Jesus, and you don;t have a place of community, if you are not in a group, I really believe that you are short changing yourself, and you are denying some of your brothers and sisters, you are denying the body of Christ, the blessing and benefit of you. I really do. I believe that strongly in this stuff. As much as I believe people need god and need a worship experience like this, I believe people need a group.



If you are a mature Christian we need you in a group. We need people over 50 in every group. We need mature Godly men and women who are will to be in a group and literally adopt and mentor and guide young people and young families. In fact,I think our church is probably short on older, mature Christians who can really offer something to all the young bucks and does bouncing around here.

We need kids in our groups, because kids help all of us keep it real, and kids need to see what Christian community really looks like. We need babies crying, and kids playing and tweens helping and teens participating.

We have created these groups because the bible teaches that Christians got together in groups in homes. We’ve structured our groups the way we have because we believe that we have to have a structure that doesn’t limit our growth, and doesn’t exclude anyone who wants to get involved. It’s not the only way to do community, and to do groups. But it’s our way. And we want you to be involved. It structured enough that there doesn’t have to be any guess work involved. It’s free enough for groups to work the system in a way that works for them.

Some of you, you are saying nope, no way, never, not gonna happen. Not gonna be in a group, not gonna start a group. And you now what, to that I just say you lack faith. You’re not a bad person. It’s not that you don’t love Jesus. But you lack faith. You rob yourself. You rob the church. Because really, we don;t ask much of you. I mean Jesus ask everything of you, but we don;t ask much of you. We ask you to be a part of worship and to bring your neighbors. We ask you to volunteer. We ask you to get in a home group. That’s what we do. That’s what we ask. And that’s what I’m asking of you right now.

Nate’s gonna play, you’re gonna look at your catalog, you’re gonna sign up, and we’ll all be blessed by connecting with one another.

A Culture of Connection

November 25, 2007
George . Saylor

Transformers was the movie of the summer, but they didn’t even come close to Voltron. Most people have forgotten about Voltron- there’s no movie coming out celebrate their return. And it’s a shame because they were way better. There were five young men and women who came to planet Arus, searching the universe for habitable planets. Arus was held captive by the evil king Zarkon and his forces (evil always has a name friends). While they did not seek to be drawn into the fight, they simply couldn’t help it- they had to fight for the greater good for normal men and women. But even these young heroes were no match for Zarkon- until they discovered the five lions of Voltron.

The Voltron force would don their fighting machines- giant robots that would be transformed into Lions. And just when defeat seemed inevitable, one would cry out to the others, “Voltron Power!” At that moment the most amazing thing would happen, every week. You just saw it- the five individuals would come together to form one gigantic fighting machine. One would become the body, the others each of the limbs. Finally the head would emerge. Then together as a united force, Voltron would prevail. What they could not do as individuals they did as one body. The forces of evil were held at bay for another week.

I think a bible scholar must have been on the writing team of that show! That’s the church! That’s the Christian life! That’s Connections! Men and women coming together for the greater good; fighting evil in the world, seeking justice, mercy, goodness and love. People who have each been called to serve and share their unique gifts and abilities, and who have been given some amazing abilities. Yet people who can’t do it alone. Men and women who need each other, who need to come together, to work together, to each play our part on the team. Men and women who share their unique gifts to be used for the greater good. And when they do, man it’s awesome- it’s a force that can’t be stopped. For together, in the sharing of our gifts and resources, we are able to accomplish infinitely more than any one of us ever could on our own.

Most of you have heard the word “Synergy.” It’s one of the latest buzzwords, and it’s a great word. It’s this amazing reaction that occurs when 2 or more forces are combined and their effect together is more than they could ever have alone. But the effect isn’t merely one of addition, it’s exponential. For example, they say, if you take two horses that can each pull 1000 lbs and you put them together, you’d think they could pull 2000lbs, but somehow they end up pulling more like 2500lbs.

I’ve seen this happen in the church. I’ve seen this happen with Connections already- that the effect we can have isn’t just you and I adding our lives together- it’s more like multiplying our lives together. It’s seeing things happen that I couldn’t do alone, and you couldn’t do alone. Things that only happen when we connect.

This is the fifth and final movement of our series on Cultivating a Connecting Culture. This is our chance to start this church out right- to work the kinds of qualities into the soil that will nurture and grow our church. First we talked about trust- what would it look like for us, especially those of us who have been burned, to start trusting ourselves, to start trusting others, to start trusting God? Then we talked about acceptance. Because some of us that taken that leap of faith, that leap of trust with another person, and we’ve been rejected. So we looked into the bible and found a God who in Jesus Christ came to say I accept you, I love you, I’ll even die for you. With acceptance assured we looked to the truth, a culture of truth. Because the truth will set you free, but it’s really hard to be truthful with ourselves and others and God. But the only other option is denial, is lies, is living life with a mask. Once we embrace the truth of our lives we can start to experience healing. Now sometimes that healing comes to us physically in amazing ways. But what God offers all of us, each and every person, is a kind of inner healing. A healing that comes to our inner wounds when we simple admit I’m sick, I need a doctor, Jesus help me.

The last service was pretty heavy as we dealt with the healing, but we had to get into the hurt. But today is good. Today is about us getting connected. Today is about Voltron power! It’s about the amazing power of transformation that happens when we get connected to God through Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ in our lives, get connected with other people. And connected with other people the impact we can have in fighting evil, and promoting goodness and blessing in our world!

This is obviously what we are about here at connections. I hardly know where to begin. But let’s start by looking at why connection is such a need.

In his book, A Generation alone, author William Mahedy writes of his work with college students in today's culture. William observes that many students are showing the same symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that war vets have suffered. He says that the culture has actually bred a PTSD generation due to the trauma of abandonment through divorce, psychological and sexual abuse as children, rape, overexposure to media violence and sexual exploitation. He can find no other explanation for...

“the widespread problems with stability, self-image, feelings of emptiness, depression, suicidal thinking, fear of the future, and lack of hope among the young.”

His conclusion,

“Abandonment is the fundamental mental component of the generational disorders…the young have been abandoned by parents, loved ones, teachers, political leaders, even the culture itself. No one is really there for them now…More than any of their predecessors, they have been since birth a generation alone.” p. 28-29

Into a postmodern PTSD generation, read these ancient words about the church...

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 26-27

It’s really a simple image-tThere are many parts, but one body. Every part is equally valuable. We rejoice, and we suffer, together.

Paul says there are two main problems with life in this world- we are separated from God and separated from people. Then he tells us there is one solution to both- being IN Christ.

This is really the heart of Christianity. The one point that should be so abundantly clear, but is easily missed. It’s this simple little phrase that if we’d experience it, and understand it, would change everything thing- is in Christ. If you are just now considering Jesus, this whole church thing, then you need to understand this. IF you’ve been following Jesus your whole life, you need to understand this, and you may have never really heard it put this way before.

More than 100 times in the New Testament we are told to be in Christ. This is the heart of the synergy we can start to experience in the Christian life. What we see throughout the New Testament is this image, this picture, this phrase that Paul continually uses about being “In Christ.” Put your faith, your hope, you life in Christ. But Paul actual goes beyond this. Paul is talking about nothing less than having an encounter with Jesus where we find ourselves, our lives, swept up into the person of Jesus Christ. He is actually talking about us putting our lives in Jesus. And as we read through the NT we start to see this everywhere- you do’t just put yoru faith in Christ, it is in Christ that we find our faith! Your salvation is in Christ, your sanctification is in Christ, your hope is in Christ. If anyone is IN CHRIST he is a new creation, the old life has passed away and a new life has begun!

Here’s the thing- too often the church has tended to teach, or at least people have heard, that we are to invite Christ to be in our hearts, in our lives, in our church. WE teach our kids to invite Jesus into their hearts, which is good, and it’s Biblical, to welcome Christ into our lives. And this is about all a kid can understand; because they actually think the universe is centered on them- you gotta love it! But the witness of the Bible time and again is not just to invite Christ into our life- it is to put our lives in Christ. It’s not about asking Jesus to be a part of my life and my plans. It’s about getting into Jesus, and being a part of his life and his plans. Do you catch the subtle but crucial difference? It’s not about me. It’s about Jesus. It’s about being in Christ. Putting my life in his.

And when we experience this new life in Christ for ourselves, something else happens. When you and I both give our lives to Jesus, when you and I are both in Christ, we find ourselves in a new relationship, a new context with each other. We are no longer two different people with our own experience of Jesus living our own lives and trying to figure out what it means to be the church together- instead we are two individual people, with our own unique experience and relationship with Christ, but each of us have that experience in Christ together. Jesus hasn’t come so much to the solitary sphere of my life- we’ve come into the sphere of the life of Jesus, and whether we like it or not, if we both in Jesus, we are in Him together for life.

OK, now I’m blatantly going to try to impress you, or at least justify the time and money I’ve spent on my education- there is an ancient phrase for this- “Unio mystica cum Christo” (The mysterious union of the believer with Christ). Mystically we are swept up into the person of Jesus Christ.

That’s the connection we are all about here- Individuals, known and loved and called by God living in Jesus Christ. And in Jesus Christ, we look around and see all these other people we are now connected to. Connected in a mysterious union that actually transcends our petty differences. A connection, that as the bible says, makes men and women, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Canadian and American one in Christ!

Is this totally nuts? I don’t mind if this I hard for you to accept right now, if you still have questions. In fact I think that would be really cool if you had some questions about this stuff. But does that basic model of connection, of connecting to God in a relationship at least makes sense- that that way of Christ, the way of God, is not ultimately about fitting God into our lives- but about getting our life in God through Jesus, in they mysterious union with Christ. That is real life is found, that is where salvation is found, that is where hope is found.

This may be the hardest part of the bible, of the Christian message, of following Christ for moderns- folks basically around 40 or older who grew up in a culture dominated by a modern scientific rationalism that says the experience and autonomy of the individual are supreme above all things. This surrender of ones self, of ones life, to someone else, to some things else. But conversely, this may be the most exciting part of the message of Jesus for folks 30 and under, post moderns struggling with the PTSD of being abandoned in the culture, this message that you can be a part of something bigger than yourself and your life.

When the bible talks about the church, it never talks bout buildings or denominations or one-hour worship services once a week, it talks about a mystical gathering of people. Transformed people that have become the temple of the Lord. The church is the people; the people are the church. And because all Christians are living in Christ, we become part of him. I love it that we don’t have a church building yet, but that we are already a church. That we are already a people coming together to worship God, to love and support one another, to share our love and support with the world!

Just like those crazy kids that came together in Voltron, we come together in Christ. Just like they each had a unique role to play, each one of has a part to play. Just like each of those kids was gifted and talented in jus the right way, so each and every one of you have been given just the right gifts and talents. Just like when one of those kids was hurt or suffered, so all of us suffer when one part suffers. Just like all of those kids rejoiced in Voltrons victory, so each of us rejoice in the victory of life in Christ!

After leading groups through ropes courses I would always end with the same prayer. I’d make everybody gather around in a circle and put his or her arms around each other. Everybody hated it. I hate it. Who wants to put their arms around folks, especially after you’ve been sweating and working all day. But I’d make them get close, make them embrace, make them look at their neighbor- in the eye, not at the ground- and say to them

“You are part of the body of Christ.”

Everybody loved that. Then we’d say,

“Christ loves you and gave his life for you.”

That was a little more intense. Then the final prayer,

“Without you Christ’s body is broken.”

As I look around this morning I see the body of Christ. As I look at you this morning I want you to know that you can be a part of the body of Christ. I want you to know that Christ loves you and gave his life for you. I want you to know that without you Christ’s body is broken.

We are getting ready to launch Connections into London and I want us to come onto the scene like Voltron! I want us to be a force for good, for justice, for mercy and compassion. I want us to be a force of people in Christ together, many parts, one body. I want the parts of our body to touch every area of London- every business, every school, every neighborhood, every street, every house, every life.

If we are going to have that kind of an impact we need a big body. How many parts? I don’t know. God will give us all the parts we need. 100 parts? God has already shown us we need more parts than that before we’ve even started weekly services. So what’s it’s gonna be- 200 parts? 300 hundred? 500? 1000 parts? Where do you think this could go? What part do you want to play? What role can you and only you play in this body?

Connections Community Church will never be any more, or any less, than the people. The people who get connecting to Christ, in Christ. The people who get connected to each other in Christ. The people, connected in Christ, who go our into the world to be his hands, his feet, his eyes and ears and voice and heart.