What's in our name?

This week as we ask, “What’s in our name?” I will unpack the second word: Community. What does Community mean in the name Grace Community Church?

Let me start by asking a basic question: What is our vision? Our vision, as we commonly state it, is “discipleship through relationship.” I have a simple definition of discipleship. Discipleship is the lifelong process of every human being that seeks to answer two questions:

How do I perceive God?

How do I perceive myself?

My favorite theologian puts it like this:

Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves….For, quite clearly, the mighty gifts with which we are endowed are hardly from ourselves; indeed, our very being is nothing but subsistence in the one God. Then, by these benefits shed like dew from heaven upon us, we are led as by rivulets to the spring itself.

In other words, in thinking about ourselves we can’t help but think about God, and in thinking of God we can’t help but think about ourselves. However, if I’m left alone to do this, I will always come up with a distorted picture of both myself and God (cf. Jeremiah 17:9). We can’t do discipleship alone. We have to do “discipleship through relationship.” The word Community in our name has to do with that need for relationship in order to have working knowledge of God and self.

Community is God putting us in relationship with others in order to give us a taste (or to reveal) Himself to us. Concerning God revealing Himself to us, Christian psychologist Larry Crabb says, “A critical element in the revealing process is to place us in a community of people who are enough like Him to give us a taste firsthand.” To taste and see God, I need Community with other disciples. Walking with them, I will have living knowledge of how God has revealed Himself to us as Creator and Redeemer.

It’s also in relationship with others where I really know myself as a “glorious ruin.” The Community of Grace helps me honestly perceive how I am ruined by sins I’ve committed and ruined by sins that have been committed against me. Sometimes it takes place when we have silent confession in prayer during corporate public worship. Sometimes it takes place when I can speak freely with someone from my small group who knows me well. In Community at Grace I also know myself as someone made in the image of my Creator. I see this when we sing together every Sunday. Community helps me perceive how I am glorious—fearfully and wonderfully made (cf. Psalm 139:14). I am like all those children moving around our building. The Community reminds me that I am redeemed. I have been bought by Jesus Christ at the price of His shed blood. Whether we come together corporately, in small groups, or one on one, in Community we give each other better knowledge of self and better knowledge of God. Community completes our vision of “discipleship through relationship.”