“Who’s gonna be there?” This is possibly the most important question to answer before committing to an event of any kind. The reason this question is important is because we are all wired with a need to be with other people. We were made for relationships and we long for them to be meaningful. Friendships are valuable for many reasons. Certainly we enjoy other people’s company and a shared experience with a friend can become life-long memorable moment, but most importantly, having good friends is important because we learn and grow from the influence of other people in our life. We help one another along, and we journey through life together. It is at this point that friendships develops into a relationships, and then forms community.
Defining community is like defining ministry or possibly recreation, because it is very broad and loaded with many descriptive options. Generally speaking, community is a group with a focused interest and commonality. It is certainly a group of good friends, but is so much more than that. Community involves a depth that is not found in casual friendships. Community takes time to develop, grow, and mature. One can be in a group of many friends and never find community, just like someone can be surrounded by people and still be alone.
We see a great model of community in the first church in Act 2: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” Then in Acts 4:34 we see this about this community: “There were no needy persons among them.”
This is a beautiful picture of Christ-like community and could be a model for you to look for when seeking community in college. Here is the lesson we can learn from them:
- The foundation of their community was discipleship (“devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching”).
- They ate meals together and shared life with on another (“and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread).
- They prayed together (“and to prayer.”)
- They did ministry together (“They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”)
- They worshiped together (“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.”)
- They cared for each other: (“There were no needy persons among them.”)
These 6 characteristics of the early Christians reflects what you can find in a campus ministry and local church in college. To help you discover and connect, the 3C App will guide you to the ministries on your campus.