How can a home bringe peace to a neighborhood?
This may seem overwhelming, but you are not alone! We are in this together. We can encourage each other. We can help each other be more effective.
Life Group – we follow Jesus together, sharing life, building relationships, and serving our neighbors.
“Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:34-35 and we see this further explained in 1 John 3:16, 18; 4:7-12
In Acts 2:42-47 we see how the people who head Jesus’ instructions responded:
“Devote, fellowship, meals, prayer, work together strategically, worship together in big group, eat together in homes,” Acts 2:42-47
“love each other, work together” Philippians 2:2
“serve one another in love” Galatians 5:13-14
“Make every effort – unity” Ephesians 4:1-3
“motivate each other, don’t neglect gathering, encourage each other” Hebrews 10:23-25
In the Scripture, we see examples of believers following Jesus always in the context of close personal relationship with each other. There was constant discussion, prayer, meals, and learning from what Jesus taught together.
Life Group – we follow Jesus together, sharing life, building relationships, and serving our neighbors.
Small groups may be called “Life Groups” because it’s where we “Share Life” or “Do Life Together”.
We grow by meeting in small groups for prayer, learning, and sharing life.
Sharing is being open with each other about the good and the bad of our reality. This means laughing, crying, talking, and listening. We help each other. This enables us to share the struggles of growing in faith with each other. This sort of sharing is only possible when we’ve spent time talking, listening, laughing, crying, and praying together. That sense of community only comes when we believe the other people are trustworthy and want to be with us. This takes time and investment.
Community – the intentional development of meaningful relationships, based on God’s purpose/principles, resulting in each person having a sense of belonging, acceptance, and significance.
A resulting sense of belonging:
- To belong means I’m a part of something where I can give and receive.
- To belong means I feel love, acceptance, and affection. I am cared for.
- To belong means I am not useless. I can make a difference. I am important.
Life Group Leaders –
Love God and love you: selfless, faithful, patient, kind
Provide a time and place for a group to follow Jesus together
Pray for you during the week
Looking to God as the source, not themselves
Willing to share life with you
Do you remember the sight of that bean sprout coming out of the dirt filled milk carton? As a kid you’re jumping around the kitchen declaring yourself, Farmer of the Year. Growing up can be exciting. Growth is natural. You don’t expect your teenager to still be in diapers. We all want to grow. Where there is life – there is growth.
At City Harbor Church we want to help you grow in your “next steps” of following Jesus and your relationships with others. We believe that everyone can use a little help. This is why we say, “Nobody stands alone.”
We would love to learn from you. We would love to help you grow.
How can a home bring peace to a neighborhood?
Steps so far:
- It’s a God idea.
- Peace inside the house.
- Build relationships, love by listening.
- Help & Hospitality
- Build Bridges & Repair Bridges
- Take Action – follow God in His redemptive work
- Bring Spiritual Peace
- Life Group
- Pray for the lost and your neighborhood.
How can a home bring peace to a neighborhood? There is a peace, a healthy state that we can find in Jesus. We can be safe and sound, able to rest and function at full capacity, complete, with our guilt removed, and free to enjoy life. Our God wants us to receive it and share it with others. We should understand this, pray for it, and work toward such a peace in ourselves, in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and in our city. In this way we will pursue peaceful relationships inside our homes through forgiveness. Jesus motivates us to love neighbors by listening to them in an attempt to understand them and build relationships. This listening works best when we host people with food and offer to help them in what they’re doing. From this context we may create new personal relationships and repair broken ones. We will work toward natural peace and we will bring the spiritual peace of our God. Our homes will be a gathering place for our church family to grow. We will pray for our neighbors and our neighborhood. Our homes will bring peace to the neighborhood.