Witnessing Communities

Hello all! I had a really great weekend on my retreat. God challenged me in a lot of ways and I'm excited to share what I learned!

The "track" I was apart of this weekend was called Witnessing Communities. Here are a few things I learned:

A community has these four characteristics:
1) They are Christ-centered
2) They are authentic - the people are honest with each other and God
3) They are frequent - they intentionally meet often and are an important part of each other's lives
4) They have a mission - working to bring God's Kingdom to earth by loving and serving; following Jesus and telling others about him.

A witnessing community is a little different because it's main focus is on the work done outside of the main community events: a group of students that leave their comfort zones,  and go together to a specific group of people God has laid on their hearts with the intention to bless them with the words and deeds of the Gospel.

In other words: Leave, Go, Bless


We also learned about the 5 marks of an effective witnessing community:
1) Genuine transformation vs. receiving information
2) Sacrificial service
3) Hunger for truth vs. desire for fun experiences only
4) Powerful proclamation
5) Direct and indirect evangelism


Pretty cool stuff! It made me realize that groups I'm currently apart of or have been apart of in the past definitely weren't living up to the witnessing communities we see in Acts and that Paul talks about in many of his letters, such as 1 Thessalonians. Community shouldn't be for our own personal gain, but always to help us to be a better conduit for God's love.

Another thing that God really put on my heart this weekend was what a great opportunity living in the dorms is. We will probably never have another opportunity in our lives to live in a close community with a bunch of people that may or may not have any clue who Jesus is. What a great opportunity to shine God's light where there may be some darkness, and what a great chance to truly love as God has loved us - even to those who may be hard to love or who may want nothing to do with our love.

Finally, God made me realize, again, that I am not called to be the savior of this world. Neither are you. WE are called to be God's hands and feet to bring Heaven to earth. WE. Together! God created us to have relationships and live in community. It's not about what we can do individually, but what the church can do. Awesome.

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend, and I'm praying that God blesses this new week :)