Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts Acts 2:46

This is NOT about Church attendance. Being Together isn’t about showing up once or twice a week and checking off that you were here. It’s really so much bigger than that. We need each other. We need to be present in one another’s life more than just ‘going to church.’ We need to show up for each other SO THAT WE CAN BE THE CHURCH.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16

Sharing life happens when we worship, pray and open the word of God together, and share what the Holy Spirit is revealing to our hearts through His word. So many times, when you share what God is saying to you, what you are learning from His word, those thoughts will challenge or encourage others too. Sharpening is about sharing with one another what God is saying and doing so that we can all grow in our faith.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Ephesians 4:29

“Words are like bricks. They build up when placed strategically AND destroy when thrown about carelessly.” We aren’t ok with words that are thrown around carelessly. We believe only in interaction with others in a way that can best reflect Christ with our words and actions–this should always be done in a way that builds others up. Not only the person on the receiving end of our words, but also those who witness this interactions. Our words will have an effect on those who hear them–so they have to come from an obvious place of love.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people 1 Timothy 2:1

We practice prayer because it is the strongest weapon through which the Love of Christ and the Power of the Holy Spirit can SHOW up in people’s lives. In every situation, we start by inviting God to move in people’s lives and for Him to bring change in a way that people would see Him in it.

And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. Mark 2:15

Jesus loved people enough to meet them where they were at… AND he loved them too much to leave them there. They were with him even before they came to agree with him. That’s why we say you can belong before you believe, because we know from first hand experience that putting your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior is a process. And we are saying you can walk that process out from start to finish with us. Because few people have ever been judged into life change, but many have been loved into it.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. Acts 2:45

We believe that we are called not to give, but to share. Sharing doesn’t come out of our surplus or margin; it comes from a heart posture of wanting to enjoy with others what God has given us, and to the same degree with which he shared it with us in the first place. So, we share with others as an act of loving well because God shared first and extravagantly as a demonstration of his reckless love for us

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:18

“You can be a Christian at home by yourself, but you cannot be the Church.” Gifts are others-facing. God gave each of us gifts which He intended for us to use so that others would receive the benefit. So, if we think it matters that people discover their gifts, then it also matters that we show up and put those gifts in play so that our community can be impacted by them.

bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:13-14

In looking to Christ and considering the level, the degree, and how great the distance he traveled to secure our forgiveness, we gain a point of reference for our own practice of forgiveness to others. That’s why we forgive. That’s why we bear with the conflicts, wounds, and pains of others. Because at the end of the day, we know we are both undeserving of the forgiveness that we have received from God and because uncharacteristic forgiveness from man can point to the supernatural forgiveness of GOD.