Vision: Designed for Relationship

5/7/17 - Vision: Designed for Relationship 

God designed his church to function relationally. When we come to the book of Ephesians, Paul lays out some of the basic ways this can happen. In Ephesians chapters 1-3, Paul describes our identity in Christ and in chapters 4-6, Paul tells us how we are to “walk out our faith in everyday life.”  When we’re interacting within the Church, this “walking out our faith” has a communal, unity oriented, “building up,” and intentionally relational aspect.  As we see in Ephesians, God’s will for us reveals a beauty and a need to be involved with people who are different than us, because it’s this diversity that brings a maturity to the church, as each person builds the others up.  

The diversity within the body of Christ, living in community with each other, is God’s relational design for the church.  This diversity in community works itself out as God gifts people with different abilities, mindsets and graces in order to build up someone other than themselves.  Giving of ourselves, in the image of God is what we were designed to do. This means that we need to allow ourselves to need others, because we are God’s chosen means for someone else’s faith maturity.  When we realize we need others and are built up by others - that’s when we can begin to feel like we belong in God’s church.

Just about everything in us fights against God’s relational design for the church. There is in all of us to some degree a reluctance to be dependent on other people. This dependence can cause in us an insecurity in allowing others to know my needs, admitting that I’m not self-sufficient. Whether it’s shame, anxiety, anger or whatever - we may keep other people at arms length. We may feel that in doing so we maintain our sense of value and significance - because they may reject us if we get too close.  But when we love the way Jesus loves – allowing ourselves to be open before others, and allowing them to be who they are before us, then relational interdependence can begin to grow as God designed it. It’s our hope that we can grow as a church in relational interdependency and build each other up as the Lord uses our vulnerability in each others’ lives.

Questions:

1. Do you ever consider that you would be a catalyst for someone else becoming formed in the image of Christ? If so, how? If not, can you identify why you can’t see your contribution to the body of Christ? Possibly rooted in fear, shame or anger?

2. In Ephesians chapters 4-6 what sticks out to you as a key aspect of our relationships to one another?

3. What are we doing or could we do in our community group to walk out our faith in a communal, unity oriented, “building up,” and intentionally relational way?

Contributed by Sky Caddy