We're Better Together!

We really are better together! Wasn't this a great weekend?!! Spending time together, camping out at the church, building a great big bonfire, playing games together, lots of great conversations and connections, a worship service in the round, and the start of our first 40 Days of Community groups. What a kickoff!!! [pictures will be added to this blog later in the week, so stay tuned! As a bonus, we'll link you to the Jello-wrestling pictures when they get uploaded to the youth group site!!] :)

For me personally, in addition to all the plain ol' fun, I honestly can't remember a weekend where I had more meaningful conversations with people about all sorts of big things in their lives--family issues, career issues, relational issues, health issues, grief issues, spiritual issues. It seems that many in our church are going through difficult times right now, and it is a great time to focus (like we will for these 40 days) on the responsibility we have to love each other and carry one another's burdens (Gal. 6:2).

For those of you who missed it, you missed a great day, but you don't have to miss the rest of the great days that God has in store for us. Make sure you get to your group this week. If you're not in a group, see the list down below for names & contact information. We all need a group! Because we're better together! Remember...

• I'm incomplete by myself
• I'm unaccountable by myself
• I'm disobedient by myself
• I'm unsupported by myself
• I'm unloved by myself
• I'm unloving by myself

I don't want to be incomplete, unaccountable, disobedient, unsupported, unloved, and unloving. I want the opposite of that! I want to be complete, accountable, obedient, supported, loved, and loving. And to do that, I need to connect to the spiritual family that God has designed for me, the spiritual family that goes on and on forever--his church!

This whole notion that I can be a good Christian without other people around me is a lie from the pit of hell. The Christian life is not about "Me-n-God"--it's about me acknowledging God as the boss of my life and following what he says, and he says that he wants me to be a part of a local body of believers. Whenever I think I can be a Christian without the church, or without being real in relationships with the people around me, or without reaching out to the people God has placed in my life who don't know him, I'm living a lie.

I need this. You need this. Everyone you know needs this. It's the reason we were created. We were created to love, and you can't love by yourself. You have to practice it by learning how to love in relationships. What a great time to start! It's DAY ONE!!!