Seriously though, the question of how to engage your community with the love of Christ is an excellent question, and one that I believe can be understood to be one of the major threads of the narrative of the New Testament. I don’t have a lot of time to write this post, but I think one of the critical aspects of forging relationships within communities is for the community of Christ (a.k.a. the Bride, a.k.a. the Church) to reclaim our shared identity and heritage centered on the redemptive blood of Jesus.

There are so many divisions within and between denominations, and even within our local churches that it is no wonder that what we typically offer the outside world as a “better way” has absolutely no appeal at all. It is not difficult at all to see how the world is largely justified in having a jaded and cynical view of this community we call “church”. As the old saying goes, “with friends like this…”

So I suppose I will throw this out there - that I believe one of the best ways to engage my community as a whole with the love of Christ is to first engage my immediate community of fellow believers with love. As Jesus said in John 13:34-35 we are to demonstrate the love of Christ to the world around us in how we treat each other as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ!

Sounds simple, but if simple were easy…

Amen on that!