Community Is Key By Melissa Heerebout
In the late 90s, a song called the Heart of Worship was released.
And if you’ve been in church for any period, I’m sure you’ve heard this song and sung a long with the lyrics:
“ I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing. I’ve made it when it’s all about you. It’s all about you, Jesus".
When this song came out, they were mostly talking about worship and how we interact with the songs we sing. It was a deeper call for not just lip service to God but for a lifestyle of worship. I spent two days with our youth this past weekend on Vancouver Island. During our staff devotionals we sang that song and, our speaker for the weekend, Michael Chinchilla, challenged us to think about prayer in the same fashion. What are we making prayer all about? Is it all about my personal requests or is it something deeper?
Sitting together as a staff, we looked at the Lord's prayer and at how Jesus taught us to pray.
Something new stood out to me.
Matthew 6:9-13 (CBS)
The Lord’s Prayer
“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honoured as holy.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
What stood to me was the use of the pronoun “our”:
Our father
Our daily bread
Our debts
Our debtors
Then also the use of the word “us”:
Give us our daily bread.
Forgive us,
bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us.
As we looked at this prayer, I couldn’t help but think about community life. Because the Lord’s prayer doesn’t say my father, my daily bread, my debt, it says our father, our daily bread, our debts.
Our Christian life is supposed to be done in community, and even in prayer Jesus was teaching us that.
These last few years have been isolating, and we are just figuring out how to come back together. Living life in community is a muscle that we have to remember how to use.
Watching 150 kids this past weekend learn about Jesus, be loud, have camp crushes, worship their hearts out, have fun, and just be teenagers reminded me how much we need to do life together. Community is key, and it’s vital. As Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s prayer, I think he also highlighted that.
Life is not a solo sport.
Find a local church and dive in.
