The Power of Community

What is Community? What does that word even mean? There is a tv show called Community, but that isn't the community I am talking about. The dictionary says it means "fellowship or organized society". Wikipedia says it means people interacting with common values. That is probably is closer to what I think it means than what the dictionary says.
Over the past 5 years of my life, I have begun to learn what community means. I have learned that through relationships, through small groups at my church, through miscommunications, through arguments, through intense discussions, through differing of opinions, through triumphs shared, through periods of defeat, and through times of absolute joy. I think very few people, especially believers understand what community really means.
Community is not people getting together to sing songs at church or listen to a preacher or sit in a room and listen to somebody teach you about God. While those things are all great, that is not community.
I believe community is about relationships. It really all boils down to that. Our small group just finished up a book called "Groups: the Life Giving Power of Community" by John Ortberg and I really think this guy gets it. I learned so much from that book, but even more from discussing things of importance with people in my group, some of which were strangers to me at the beginning. There were times where we disagreed about things. But then there were times where people cried sharing about their struggles and we all came together with words of understanding and encouragement. That is what community is about. It is about people coming together, determined to really know one another( and I mean REALLY KNOW ONE ANOTHER)..... it is about finding a common ground even when you might not agree on everything, it is about loving each other even though we all are not really easy to love, it is about forgiving past mistakes and moving on.
If churches would really experience community, everyone would want to be a part of it. People long for that intimacy with one another. They long to be known and still be accepted in spite of their flaws. People need to have support. Real support.
In Acts 2 towards the end, it talks about real community. How the believers came together and lived together in harmony and had everything in common. They pooled all their resources and gave to people that were in need. Then it says that people saw that and wanted to be a part of it.
It is amazing to me how a group of strangers can come together and what God can do in the middle of it. People that I didn't know very well at all that I would do anything to protect now....People that I pray for daily and I know they pray for me too. People that I am proud to call my friends.
That is what community is and I am so honored to get to be a part of a community like that.