Do you remember going to church camp as a teenager? Remember singing, learning about the Lord, having fun, developing relationships with other believers, and magnifying Jesus? Remember the spiritual high you would have that would last for a short time after?
Maybe you remember going to a Christian retreat or seminar as an adult. You spend a weekend focused on the Lord and loving other believers. You probably came away with the same type of spiritual high as the teenager after camp.
Another time like that for me was Bible college. Every day was spent trying to get to know more about the Lord. I built relationships with people that I am still friends with today 30 years later. Daily interaction with other believers, challenging each other, sharing what we are learning with each other, worshiping together.
My question that I ask myself as I remember all of these times is, “What if this is closer to the normal Christian church life?” As I look at the New Testament church, I see many similarities. Daily interactions with other believers, sharing what they have learned of Jesus with each other, supporting one another emotionally, financially, and physically, eating together, loving one another, and the list goes on.
Jesus spent three years with his disciples living together. Jesus was showing them who he was, but also how to live together in community as the body of Christ.
What do you think? Is this type of community/communal living for the exaltation of Christ and edification of one another something that should be pursued?
*I am not talking about buying some land in the middle of nowhere and enclosing ourselves away from the world, but do mean living in close proximity to other believers and having deep relationships that interact more than once or twice a week.
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