“Let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds. Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other.” — Hebrews 10:24-25.
One of my favorite things to do is to sit down with a friend over a cup of coffee, or lunch, or at the brewery, and just chat. It is more than just enjoyable; I believe it is spiritual food. We were created for community. It’s a fact supported by research in anthropology and in psychology and even in biology.
I read an article recently that discussed the cost to our culture when church is no longer the epicenter of life and identity. What has been lost is a kind of fabric that knits us together. Leaving does not reproduce it in some other context — it is simply gone. Community is life.
This is at the heart of my love for men’s ministry. Men are generally not so well equipped as women when it comes to the whole relationship dynamic. Sharing, asking for support, conversational intimacy, vulnerability and praying together can be a bit of a stretch — whereas women tend to be more relationally intuitive.
Some of this came up in conversation with my friend at the Coffee House. We agree that “being an encourager” is one of the best things men can do for one another. And we can’t encourage if we don’t know, and we won’t know if we are afraid to be vulnerable, and we will never be vulnerable unless we are confident enough to be honest, and confidence depends on mutual trust, and how can we trust each other outside of love?
And how can we love or be loved if we keep so much of ourselves under wraps? This is the cost of losing fellowship; so, we must come back together and with the commitment to build one another up, the willingness to know and to be known.
This quality of community is one of the most important things we can do if we want to see healing. Healing in ourselves, healing in community and healing in this nation.
— Derek
