Main Session 1

Description: Water and oxygen we understand, but why is community so essential to the human heart? In a brand-new talk, John Burke digs into the theological underpinnings of group life to help you rediscover your passion for planting, cultivating, and nurturing community.

Speaker Bio: John Burke serves as lead pastor at Gateway Community Church in Austin, Texas, a congregation dedicated to helping unchurched people become a unified community of growing Christ-followers, no matter what their background or past. He is also the president of Emerging Leadership Initiative (ELI), a non-profit organization founded to help establish a multiplying network of missional churches that envision, equip, and empower young emerging leaders to plant innovative churches. Before starting Gateway, John was the executive director of ministries at Willow Creek Community Church. He and Kathy are the parents of two children, Ashley and Justin.

Notes:

I’ve led small groups for 20 years now, and sometimes you feel like you’re leading a circus. Sometimes you feel like you’re not powerful, prepared, smart enough. You throw your hands in the air and ask God how He got you into this, and then God shows up and does something amazing.

What are we supposed to be? Bible study leaders, gurus, missions directors, the church’s answer to speed dating? What are we trying to do, and what is God trying to do among us. Is this community thing just a side salad or the central thing God is trying to do among us?

What is the center line off which we need to be building community? What is essential, what is central for us as small group leaders according to the Architect Himself.

One time Jesus was meeting with His small group of about 15. Martha was serving, doing a good thing, and she was upset at Mary because Mary wasn’t “helping,” so she goes to Jesus. Jesus’ answer (Luke 10), only one thing is necessary: listening. The way we love God is listening to Him. This is the central line off of which we build everything else.

My father died of cancer when he was very young. He was financially successful, but he said he would give it all back if he could have his health and family. His last words stuck, last words stick. They are important.

What were Jesus’ last words, “Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15). What was important to Jesus, relationship.

We love God by listening to, responding to, and obeying His Spirit. Jesus knows that we are bad at listening, so on his way to Gethsemane, he said you’re like this branch, all a branch has to do is stay connected to the vine in order to bear fruit (John 15:5). If you can do nothing apart from Jesus, then staying connected to Him must be central.

We can spend our whole lives “do gooding” like Martha, but not be connected to Jesus. This must be the center line off which we build community to Jesus. Stay connected, listening and responding to God’s Spirit. We’ve made Christianity too complicated and complex. It’s simple. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. All of the other things are good things, but if they don’t help them stay connected, then we’re accomplishing nothing. That’s when it gets frustratingly impossible; that’s when you burn out.

If you stay connected, fruit happens.

That’s the only thing we must do personally, and it’s what we must strategize to help others do it as well.

This is so freeing for you as a leader because you don’t feel the pressure to fix or change people. That’s not your job or mine. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

No matter what the brokenness, struggle, or addiction, if you do this, you will see God do things in your life and the lives others that you could never imagine.

You have to teach people to stay connected, because this does not come naturally to us. Romans 7:15 – I do what I hate and not the good I want to do. Romans 8: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is the whole point of grace, it was not given just to one day get us into Heaven, but to get Heaven down into us. Grace makes this moment by moment connection to God’s Spirit possible. He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

When sailing, you have to keep adjusting your sails to stay in the groove of the wind. This is what Paul is saying we must do. This is only thing you have to do, but it is the hardest thing to remember to do.

Do you, in fact, live your life this way? Do you stay in this constant conversation with your Heavenly Father? As you lead others, as you prepare to lead others, as anger is welling up with you in a conflict with a spouse or coworker?

How do we do this? How do we re-train ourselves?

The more we stay connected, the more we live the abundant life promised us.

How do we get people to do this? I felt the Spirit moving me to try a 60 day experiment with our groups. We got everyone a watch that beeps every 60 minutes. The idea being that every hour you would stop and remember that the Lord was with you.

The first time we did this we had 2000 people do it, and the people who committed to it had dramatic results.

Of course, it wasn’t always easy. I got an e-mail from a guy two days in saying that I am never where I want to be when this thing goes off.

There were even amazing results from people who were seekers. God’s promises will prove true even to those who don’t believe.

We put together a website where people could read what God is doing in people’s lives: soulrevolution.net

All of our Bible study, prayer, sharing, caring, and serving must be built around this central thing, staying connected to God’s Spirit. God will then build an unbelievable community among us. What you are doing as a leader is cetnral to what God is building. I believe community is the central thing God is trying to build among us.

We get so caught up in evolution/creation debates that we miss what Genesis 1 and 2 is about. Genesis 2 “It is not good for the man to be alone.” He wasn’t just talking about marriage, Jesus was single. People were created to live together in community, not disconnected from God and others.

How many Christ followers to have this “lone ranger” mentality? I’ve got God, and I don’t need anyone else.

Why is this so important to God? “Let us create man in our image.” Right here we see this mystery, a community within the oneness of God. (Ed. Note: While I certainly believe in the Trinity, there are other possible explanations for this passage.) God is this perfect community of living and serving the other, and this is what God wants us to do as well.

Image bearers were created initially to be one with God, others, and creation. Then why is it so difficult? Genesis 3: Sin enters the world. It separates us from God, from the very source of life and light. The first impact of this separation from God is alienation of self. Our identity gets darkened. Genesis 3: They made coverings for themselves and hid from the LORD God. They begin to feel shame and condemnation?

It’s like children, first they try to hide, but their faces show it all. Then, they try to blame others. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent.

First we feel alienated, so we wear masks, and then we blame others and take it out on them.

Now you understand why it is so difficult and challenging to lead human beings?

The only thing that make it easier is when you realize it’s not up to you. God is doing the building.

As you read the story of Scripture from Genesis on and you read the story of Israel you realize something is wrong. Sometimes they get it right, but most of the time not. Deep within the fabric of this story is that Israel will not get the job done until it gets done for them, until the Messiah comes and brings oneness. Without God’s help we just keep dividing and destroying because that is what we learn from an early age.

Tony Campolo said there really is a place called purgatory between earth and heaven where we are made to go to pay for everything we do wrong: It’s called junior high.

I was lucky to be part of a group of friends in junior high. One of the things I was most ashamed of is the way that we treated a boy named Griff who became one of our friends. Griff couldn’t control his bowels, and at first we befriended him, but as the rumors spread and the mocking increased and began to be pointed toward us, one of our friends ridiculed him and told him we didn’t want him. I felt this pain in my gut that said don’t let this happen, but I was afraid of the way I would be treated.

Jesus takes all of the shame and pain on himself to restore us to the Father. That’s the whole story of God.

That’s why Jesus prayed this during his last day on Earth, that the church would be one so that the world would believe that Jesus was sent from God.

Galatians 3:28 – There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

God heals our brokenness and brings us toward oneness in Christ.

One willing life at a time, and then one willing community at a time, one neighborhood, and one community.

My friend Kim who had ridiculed Griff went and made amends with him later in life and it made a huge change in Griff’s life.

Spiritual growth is relational. It’s all about loving God and loving others. You can’t say “I follow Christ” and remain isolated from community.

As you lead your community to help people build off this center line, He begins to lead us all to find wholeness and healing from this self-consumed, self-destroying living. We begin to find community where we can know and be known, love and be loved, serve and be served.

During our June baptism I saw this picture. Bob (not real name) is a 65 year-old man who I baptized along with his brother a few years ago. Bob hated his next-door neighbor who was a mean, abusive drunk. One day Bob was out doing the yard and felt a prompting in his spirit to take a meal to take it to his neighbor who he hates. That changed everything in their relationship. His neighbor’s wife got baptized. In June, Bob baptized his neighbor.

What God is building through you is essential.

Related posts:

1. Group Life 2008 – Community and Social Media
2. Willow Creek Group Life 2008