“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John:15:13

Community requires friendship, friendship requires love, and love requires sacrifice. If you want to build a good community, you need to be open to changing your perspective on why you are looking for community.

1. Ask yourself what you can do for a community, not what a community can do for you.

Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-This is your spiritual act of worship.”

I used to be the kind of person that yearned for a community, but any opportunity I had to engage in community, I would turn down or go in with my all my walls up. I was the person who would ask themselves, “what can I get out of this community or how can I benefit most from this community?” The question that I needed to ask, which God used to transform my relationship with Him was, “What can I provide to this community to make it better?” We all have something to offer, especially when it comes to being in community with other people! What we are willing to put into your community is what we are going to get out of it! I had a wrong perspective on community.

2. Meet consistently.

Having a mentor, accountability partner and a group of people like young adults that I can connect with on a regular basis have transformed my relationship with Jesus Christ. Community creates an accountability that I need in my walk with Jesus. God uses all things to work together for His good. At first, it was not easy for me to step into the community that was around me. I knew I had to be vulnerable and sacrifice my time and pride along with other things. I had to let God break down the walls that I was so used to putting up.

3. Use your community to grow spiritually.

Community is a vital tool to have in our relationship with God! The moment I was willing to give up control and live the life God was calling me to live was the same moment I started to grow and see God move not only through my own life but in the community around me. The best way we can grow in our spiritual walk is humbling ourselves and surrounding ourselves with people who are more mature in their relationship with Jesus. We need people to help us, challenge us, and push us out of our comfort zone. If we stay in our comfort zone we will not grow.

Practical next steps:

• Join a group or start a group.
• Go to Student Central (if you're in middle school or high school).
• Go to Young Adults (if you’re out of high school and under the age of 30).
• Attend a Vineyard FIT class.
• Finding a team to serve on.
• And if you haven’t already, find an accountability partner and/or a mentor that is going to ask the tough questions and love like Jesus.

This quote from Rick Warren’s book, Purpose Driven Life, ties it all together, “Love means giving up - yielding my preferences, comfort, goals, security, money, energy, or time for the benefit of someone else.” This quote reminds me that if I want to be in true community, I must be willing to yield these things for other people. We should always be looking to grow our community and never be comfortable with where we our at in our relationship with Jesus.

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