SUSTAINING OUR COMMUNITY BY DR WILSON LIM

In the recent conference, we learnt many aspects about a biblical community that has been tremendously inspiring to all of us. As a community we have been growing in stature to be the kind of community that God desires. To continue on this journey, it is critical that we understand another key aspect. That of creating a sustainable community.

A community is only as sustainable as its people. Unless there is a deep and on-going commitment amongst the people, it would not be possible to maintain this community over time. From the Scriptures, we gain an understanding of some keys that will help us maintain our community.

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[Photo: A Community Church Conference]

1. Fostering a learning environment

A sustainable community must be a community that is able to progress through learning. For we live in a rapidly changing world and if we are unable to learn and suitably adapt, we may discover that certain elements of our community life may become unviable or unsuitable to our context, after some time. For example, if our practices become outdated, we will become less effective in meeting needs in our community.

A critical component of our learning has to be in relation to God’s Word. Our understanding of God’s Word must be built upon past learning and experiences. For our understanding of God’s Word is often influenced by our context, whether culture, theological issues of the day, prevalent thinking or experiences. Hopefully, we gain wisdom by building upon the accumulated wisdom of the church over the years in order that we may be even more accurate to the principles of Scripture. For the more we grow to understand God’s Word and applying it faithfully, we will grow into maturity in Christ as Scriptures exhort us to.

2 Peter 3:18 (NIV) 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

It is also important that we learn wisdom from our experiences and that of others, whether positive or negative, so that we can better develop our community. The more we learn and improve in what we nurture and build into our community, the more we can effectively grow as a community.

[Photo: A Community Church Conference]

2. Imparting to effective leaders

As we had learnt in the conference, governance is an important pillar in any community. Leadership is critical to the sustainability of a community. Good leaders will ensure the health of a community while bad leaders will eventually weaken a community, as its members will lose commitment.

We see the example of Moses who effectively trained Joshua to lead the Israelites and consequently the community grew stronger and was able to conquer the Promised Land. Unfortunately, Joshua did not raise the next generation of leadership. The result was

Judges 2:10 (NIV) 10After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.

We must do all we can to train the next generation of leaders so that they will go further than the present generation.


[Photo: Ablaze Youth Camp]
3. Pass the core values to the next generation

Besides raising the next generation of leaders, it is equally important to pass on our core values to the next generation. If the next generation do not understand nor appreciate our core values, the community will eventually dissipate. Eventually, the community will have little reason to exist.

Thus, it is critical that every member understands our core values, our vision and philosophy of ministry. For that identifies our uniqueness that God has given us. Hence, we should ask ourselves, do we understand and appreciate our community core values, vision and philosophy of ministry?


4. Renew the community commitment

No community can be maintained unless there is sufficient commitment. However, commitment tends to dilute with time. For this reason it is important to renew our commitment to God, to the community and to our fellow members periodically. In particular, there are two areas that needs to be renewed
periodically.

[Photo: 15th Church Anniversary Worship team]

Firstly, our minds should be renewed periodically. Renewing of our minds is about renewing our understanding. The understanding of our identity as a community; who we are, why we exist. If renewal occurs only emotionally, it will not last the distance. Doubt, confusion, vagueness will creep in when there is lack of clarity in understanding. That is why we place great value on continually teaching God’s Word in relation to building biblical churches.

On the other hand, if we are unable to defend our position on the basis of God’s Word as well as on rational grounds, then we should be humble enough to re-examine our position.

Secondly, we ought to renew our hearts periodically together with the renewing of our minds. Unless we commit our hearts, we will only have mental assent and no life change. We see the challenge to heart commitment such as in Josh 24:14-18.

14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

16 Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God." Joshua 24:14-18

[Photo: 15th Church Anniversary Worship team]

5. Evaluate community health

How would we know how healthy our community is unless we evaluate it periodically? Even the Apostle Paul was concern to evaluate the state of the churches he established.





Acts 15:36 (NIV) 36Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”

We should be willing to assess the state of our community in order that we may take remedial action, if necessary. The sooner we address issues in our community, the easier it is to bring it back to proper health.

God desires our community to continue growing in maturity unto Christ-likeness and to grow until Jesus returns. For that reason, we must seek to have a sustainable community. Do join with us on that journey together.*

Your fellow community member,

Dr. Wilson Lim
Hope Brisbane Christian Church

* Source: Inside Hope Newsletter