We Need Each Other

For most of my career as a pastor, I have known that community is life-giving to me. I’ve tried to be in small groups of pastors and church members for the last 38 years. Here at New Hope we are trying to develop more Sunday School classes and home groups, because we need each other. We are in this church to love God, love people, make disciples, and serve the world. We can ‘t do that alone. Maya Angelou wrote a poem called “Alone.”

Lying, thinking last night how to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty and bread loaf is not stone;
I came up with one thing, and I don’t think I’m wrong:
That nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone.

A couple of Sundays ago in a sermon, I talked about how four friends brought a paralyzed man to the feet of Jesus. They tore a hole in a roof and let him down on ropes. They were determined to get him to Jesus. Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven, and, when Jesus told him to, the man got up and walked. In that sermon I said, “We want to be the kind of church that brings people to the feet of Jesus so that they can be healed.” Like the four friends, let’s work together in love and help forgiveness and healing happen.

If you are not meeting on a regular basis with a few people every week or so, you are missing out on a major channel through which God’s love can flow into you. Find a class, find a group. Call me if you need help.