I've been thinking a lot about community and this time of year. The holidays always bring out a natural sense of community and gathering in people. We have or attend tons of holiday events from the beginning of October till the end of the new year. We have ugly sweater parties, gift exchanges, Thanksgiving, and school Christmas programs just to name a few.

None of those things are wrong, I myself enjoy a great gathering event. But, I try to encourage myself to not just see those events as community. They are great stepping stones and they are a great gateway to something more that God would want to do in our hearts where it's concerning community.

You see, true community is not about what happens in the four walls of your church or what happens in your small group. Although those things are a great start, but authentic community is about happens after you leave those places.

Do you invite someone or a family out to lunch after church? Do we make plans to see each other and be in each other's lives beyond Sunday morning? Do our homes and our lives have an open door policy so that a friend can just drop by so say hello or stop over when they need someone to lean on?

This is where true community lives.

It lives in the moments when we stretch ourselves and step outside out comfort zone to reach out to others and be involved in their lives.

Not when it's built into our schedule, when it's messy and maybe doesn't always make sense. True community is not about what's convienant for me but about ways that I can encourage and reach others.

True and authentic community happens when I care more about loving on others and less about myself and how it makes me feel.

When I care about meeting others where they are at. When I care about meeting their needs. When I make a phone call to a friend and talk about her day instead of mine. When we invite families into our home for a meal not because it's a special occasion but because it's Tuesday evening and that's worth celebrating.

If you're searching today for community and maybe you haven't found it yet, I encourage you to start acting out the community you'd want to see in your own life.

Take that risk and invite that new person to coffee and form a friendship. Take a meal to someone who needs it but isn't expecting it at all. Have people into your home and love on them. Make the effort to nurture relationships beyond what happens at church.

I promise you, you'll find it.

And even more so God will bless it.

Andrea Worley