Building a Community: Part One
So I have decided on building community is important for me to do because it is part of God’s plan. I love hanging out with my youth group but at the same time I love hanging out with the different volunteers and leaders. It gives me a since of friendship and hanging out with people. I totally want to be a good leader and sometimes you have to be with the people who are in the role of leadership to know what it takes to be a good leader. Sometimes being a good leader means to be able to give and follow directions, be a part of a good team, and be a good team member in itself. With the chaos of the economy and the world around us. Things tend to get scary but a good leader is someone who helps you out with things when you are in a middle of a storm and you are afraid of the lightning and thundering. They are able to bring you back and tell you that everyone and everything is okay. A good leader possesses the skills to be able to make sure that the boat is not going to tip and that the canoe is not going toward the trees. I witnessed this yesterday, a friend of mine and I went canoeing with my youth group and she possessed those characteristics. She is a teacher and I can see she can handle stress very well. She is able to be able to go along for the ride and not be in control but when things happen she is able to help others without freaking out. That is what it means to be a good leader.
What does this have to do with building a community? To build a community, you have to have a leader that will be able to encompass what it means to be a team. A community of friends living in a lower income neighborhood to spread God’s love is really important to me. That’s why when we are given these lemons and we don’t know what to do with them, we need to figure out who is our leader. I know that I hope that our ultimate leader that we go to and ask questions is God but it is who God delegates to be the leader or leaders in this world. I want to see not only lemonade being made but what about a lemon meringue pie. Something so sweet and delicious that nobody saw coming. I am not asking for us to become a cult but I am asking for others who are like me who feel like God is calling them to go out into community as a community of friends. That’s what I hope for. That’s what I want. I want people to see us for who we really are: Follower’s of Christ who live a simple life. No big house and a fancy car. Not a poor person begging for money but some one who wants to open their hearts for others to see Jesus. That’s what it means to be part of the community.
