For Communities' Sake!

Last week I went to a Trauma conference...I know what your thinking..boring right? But actually it was quite interesting! However, that wasn't the most exciting thing that was happening there. When I first walked into the large room I found that I was not sitting with any co-workers at all...which at first I was disappointed in...I was, instead, sitting with a group of complete strangers. The cool part about it, however, was that there were people there from all different positions within the social service field. So we were able to make connections with different agencies/people in our area (geographically) which was pretty awesome. The even better part was that all these people were at this conference to serve the clientele that they support/serve. It was one giant community coming together to show support for the work that others did and learn how they can do the work that they do better!

While I was there I began thinking that we don't often do this within the church community as often as we should. Sometimes it feels that we're "competing for souls" within our communities. Should it really be this way? Obviously there are some communities that are already doing this sometimes, but not near enough of our communities are doing this. I think that too many churches are still stuck up and don't want to deal with other denominations, for whatever reason, which is depressing and truly sad. People are scared to commit to something as large and life-changing like this...why? Why are we afraid to be apart of a movement that can forever change people's lives?

I love community, and I feel that I'm lacking in it right now, mainly because I'm not actively involved in one church, however there are still other communities that I am involved in, and they truly bless my life and make it worthwhile. To be able to serve others and be served by others, truly nothing compares to the feeling! So why are we afraid to commit to being active within these communities? We say that we're busy as we flip on the TV, we make up various excuses (and we could all name 50) not to be involved in something that could potentially change our lives and the lives of people around us. I think one of the reasons is that people will truly to get to know aspects of our lives that we wish to hide from the people around us. We are frightened of showing our weaknesses and having people expose us for our faults. But how else are we supposed to grow? So get involved, be active, get off the couch, be outspoken, dare to be wrong, dare to be vulnerable!