You have become so dear to me ...

Today, I received an email from a deacon at the last congregation where we worked and worshipped. As I read this email and began to pray for the prayer request in the email, I realized something. We may have moved 1,300 miles away from our brothers and sisters up in Pittsburgh, but I still feel the closeness and the love in my heart that I did on the day that we left.

Dave, who is the deacon I mentioned earlier, is such a giving man. His passion for the Lord and doing the right thing explodes out of every pore of his body. I cannot tell you the times that he bent over backwards to help someone else out. As the worship leader there, you couldn’t have found a better person to watch during worship, because he was pouring his heart out with every word he sung. The day that I told the congregation that we had chosen to move away and the reasons why we were moving, he felt cut to the heart. We left the congregation because we couldn’t afford to live in that area with our growing family and the amount they were able to pay me. I hate that this was our reason, but we had to think of our family’s well-being. Anyway, Dave came up to me afterwards with check book in hand and said, “How much do you need to get you guys to stay with us?” Can I tell you how tempted I was to take that money so we could stay and worship with our family there?

We had a bond. There was a connection in Spirit, in heart, and in passion. So many great things had happened and were happening. We love our Pittsburgh family. Dave reminded me of something today. He reminded me of the Community! We were a community concerned for each others' well being. We were concerned about each other’s kids. We were all there for each other. I never doubt the love they had for all of us. Our kids learned so much about God and His family while we were at Crossroads.

We love you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. - 1 Thessalonians 2:8

This family meant so much to us. They still do, but we have been led here to this community. We are a family working, living, crying, hurting, loving, ministering, worshipping, serving, and being together. We have all been drawn here for a reason. We have all come from varying backgrounds. The amazing thing though, is that I believe that God placed us all in each other’s lives for a reason. Did you know that community is a discipline? Practicing being together is a discipline. Some of you may think that this should be something so easy to practice. We are together a lot, so doesn’t that make us a community practicing community anyway? Part of this community is realizing that we are sharing in all of this together. Not only the good times and the fun times, but the hard times as well.

Others…become agents of grace in our growth toward wholeness in Christ while we become agents of God’s grace to their growth. - Robert Mulholland

I want to challenge us all to practice intentional friendship. Practice a friendship that goes beyond just the shallow knowledge of each other. Some are already setting aside time to sit down and study together. They pray and read the Word together. They share their hearts and have this time where they are being vulnerable and close to each other. That is a great part of the community. That is being with each other in the strongest way possible. I am responsible to make sure you are growing closer to God. You are responsible for me as well. We are responsible for showing this community to our boys and letting them know that this is a safe place to be together and grow together in ways they have never grown before.

I want to challenge you all to think of ways that you can grow closer in this spiritual sense in our community. If you feel drawn to form a bible study group, or just meet and pray once a week together in our coffee shop, or whatever, listen to that Spirit’s tug in your heart and do it. Think of it this way, if I have become so dear to you, like in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, what are you doing to help me grow in my faith? We should all be asking ourselves that question about each other every day. Take the time to consider what you are doing and follow the Spirit’s guidance as he leads us all into a deeper community of believers.

I love you my brothers and sisters!

Jason