Reigniting Our Faith in Community
by Lynne Miller Lent
As the gentle melody of “Jesus Loves Me” faded away, the children settled in at the front of the church for a children’s story. A church member, a farmer by trade, sat down on the altar steps in front of the kids. In his hands, he held a plateful of little brown beans.
As he greeted the children, his tan face revealed blue eyes that twinkled beneath an unruly mullet. Then he grabbed everyone’s attention by producing a small propane torch and lighting the beans on fire!
The pastor discreetly reached for the fire extinguisher, pulling it close. Meanwhile, the farmer calmly held the plate of burning beans, explaining they were soybeans, which produce a natural oil that burns when ignited. Then he took out a pair of pliers and removed a single bean from the burning pile. Once separated from the flaming beans, the single bean stopped burning.
The farmer told the wide-eyed congregation that as believers, we are no different from the plate of burning soybeans. When we come together regularly in fellowship as the body of Christ, we keep the fire of the Spirit burning within us. When we believe we can go it alone, without the support of our community, our flame is more likely to fade and go out.
The apostle Paul described the church as a body in 1 Corinthians 12, reminding us that just as our individual bodies are made up of many parts—such as hands, feet, and eyes—the church is also a living organism made of many parts.
When we believe we can go it alone, our flame is more likely to fade and go out.
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many” (vv. 12–14).
As the body of Christ, we serve together—each of us bringing our unique gifting to the table. No matter our part, we need each other.
At the very beginning of creation, God created humanity with a need for connection and community. We are made in his image, and as the three persons of the Trinity, God exists in community with himself. God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26, emphasis mine). After he created Adam, God looked at him and said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18).
God’s design for community extended to the rest of creation, which is evident in the natural world. For example, animals living in groups can watch out for one another. They are more likely to thrive in packs, herds, pods, or colonies. The same is true of symbiotic relationships between different species, such as red-billed oxpeckers and rhinos. The oxpeckers eat ticks and other insects off the rhinos, who in turn keep predators away from the oxpeckers. These creatures benefit from living in community with one another. We are no different.
Humans are better together because this is God’s design. On our own, we are vulnerable to the suggestions of Satan, who yearns to feed our pride, our depression—anything he can to make us stumble or fall—and become an ineffective witness for Christ. King Solomon wrote, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9–10a).
The farmer placed the single extinguished soybean back into the flaming pile, and it began to burn once again. He explained that when followers of Jesus reconnect with a community of believers and reenter regular fellowship, their faith can be reignited.
As believers, we are not meant to traverse this world alone. We are created in the image of God and are made for community. As a living organism, the church functions best when all of its parts work together in unity. And when we come together, we are strong and shine brightly for the world to see.
Your part matters. Your gifts matter. You matter.
Shine brightly.
Lynne Miller Lent is a wife, mom, and librarian who blogs and follows Jesus in everyday moments. @lynnemillerlent
Scripture quotations are from the New International Version of the Bible.