Have you ever been in an incredible group of friends?

​It’s amazing, isn’t it?

​I look back on times in my life (and to be honest I’m living in one right now) where I was surrounded by really good friends. Where I felt known, loved, supported, and also had times of incredible laughter and memories.

​I won’t beat a dead horse here, but you weren’t meant to do life alone. God wired you for community.

​That’s why social media and ai and algorithms will never fix or replace the loneliness that so many of us feel. It simply cannot. Because God made us for people, and He made us to only be fully alive when we are giving our lives away to others.

​Community is awesome.

​Community that makes you more like Jesus is the best.

​Community rules.

​And that’s why a good Christian community should also have rules.

​Yeah it’s true… the relationships in your lives that are Christ centered and help you live the full life that God intended should have some rules. They should have some guardrails and expectations that protect you, them, and keeps everything clear.

I’ll boil this down to 4 non-negotiables for Jesus centered community.

First, Vulnerability. It all starts with a commitment to vulnerability! If this issue is that we all desire to be fully known and loved and yet don’t feel that way, it starts with us allowing for others to know us! The devil is looking for those who are alone. It is easier to pick us off ONE BY ONE than when we are in a group. We often hold the wrong belief that if we are vulnerable we won’t be safe anymore. So we keep things to ourselves and live in secret out of self preservation, but that’s a life, because what living guarded keeps us from is LOVE. We are designed by God to fully experience joy when we are fully exposed and vulnerable and loved anyway. So by living with secrets, we are living without love. James says this…

16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

James 5:16  

Next, invitation. This one might catch you off guard. But Christian community must be rooted in the heart posture of invitation. We need to become experts at walking into spaces (school, work, church) and praying for God to pick up our eyes and show us who is around us that we could do life with.

Third, time. Yep… good community makes time for community. Being in life giving relationships of all kinds will cost you something. It will ask you to give up more and more. In our self obsessed society we have become convinced that anything that costs us is a bad thing, but without some sacrifice, what if I told you that you’ll never have life giving and Christ like relationships? Make time. Make sacrifices. Go all in with those who are in your life. You cannot do life alone.

And last, covenant. You need to commit to those who are in your life. If you have anyone around you that pushes you to be more like Jesus, my advice is simple… go all in. Stop holding back. Stop withholding telling them how much they mean to do and how much you need them. Be vulnerable. Commit to your friends. Be there for each other in the highs and lows. Promise to be there for those who make you a better version of yourself.

Chesterton once said… “When we make a promise, we make an appointment with our future selves.” - G.K. Chesterton

Commit to community. It’s worth everything that it will cost you. People will hurt you, let you down, and disappoint you. But you cannot do life alone in a constantly changing digital world. Community truly rules, and in order for it to thrive, it’s okay for it to have some rules too.