"Many very generous Christians find themselves increasingly tired and dispirited not so much because the work is hard or the success slight, but because they feel isolated, unsupported, and left alone …."

"We are able to do many hard things, tolerate many conflicts, overcome many obstacles, and persevere under many pressures, but when we no longer experience ourselves as part of a caring, supporting, praying community, we quickly lose faith. This is because faith in God's compassionate presence can never be separated from experiencing God's presence in the community to which we belong."

Henri J. M. Nouwen, Donald P. McNeill, and Douglas A. Morrison

Compassion

The New Testament pictures life in Christ as a corporate life. Consider the word pictures the apostles use to describe Jesus' followers: a body with many parts (1 Cor. 12:12-27), living stones built into a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5), a family (1 Tim. 5:1-2).

But too often we adopt instead the individualistic pattern of our society. Spiritual life consists of personal devotions, books read in isolation, sermons listened to on tape or, at best, seated alongside scores of others with whom we seldom exchange more than a nod and a smile.

How can we find the kind of community that Paul and others describe, the kind that Jesus lived out with His special group of Twelve? In today's large churches, the answer is often in small groups.

© Copyright 2003 Smalley Relationship Center

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