https://vimeo.com/67232019

I'm Wayne Jacobson and this is Engage. For the last three weeks, we've talked about inspiring your own conversation with God and learning to be in that conversation in a growing way. But a lot of people talk to me about whether they should start going to church, where they need to have a community. Do they need to build a fellowship? And it's got so linked in our cultures that to follow God, you have to be part of a church. And so the need for fellowship has become important talk in the Christian world. I'm not so interested in people getting into a church right away or getting into fellowship. I'm more interested in people finding a conversation with God that expands into a conversation with other people. See, I just think that'll happen. God loves community. He is a community, Father, Son and Spirit working together. And when they invite people into that relationship, they also invite people into relationships with each other. Community in God is irresistible. It's not an obligation. Just like Sarah and Gardens, wherever Sarah lives, gardens bloom. Sarah is a gardener. She loves the beauty of flowers and the harmony of various colors and plant textures coming together to make this beautiful whole. That's God's passion too. Not gardening, people. To build this living temple as God connects brothers and sisters in local areas as well as around the world under one head Christ. So as your conversation with God grows, God will be inviting other people alongside to share that journey with you. That's called fellowship. Ways God unites hearts together. It's not sitting in a meeting together. It's actually growing in a conversation with other brothers and sisters who are experiencing the same life in God or something similar that you are. We don't have to look alike any more than all those flowers look alike back there. It's the harmony of the whole that makes it special to God and will make it special to your life as well. That's why I talk about community. Not as an obligation. You need fellowship. It's actually an irresistible reality. Knowing God and knowing his family will cause you to experience great life and health together. Now, how do you find those relationships? If you know an older brother or sister who's on this journey, and I don't mean older by age, just maybe down the road a bit from you. And they know things about God that you would like to know or they've got a journey you would like to have them help you with yours. Ask them. People enjoy that. Could we get together once in a while and explore what this journey is like? So maybe you don't know someone like that. But you've got some friends asking similar questions, exploring a similar journey. Maybe even watching these engage videos together. And you could get together once in a while. It doesn't have to be every week. It doesn't have to be a meeting. But just in a coffee shop or in your home and explore this relationship with God together. Talk about it. What's God showing you? Where are you struggling? Where are you getting it right? Where do you feel like you've grown some from something that maybe was more of a struggle in your life? Here's what you'll notice. The conversations I want you in are not religious conversations. What I mean by religious conversations, they usually make you feel accused or they focus on your performance. They feed your guilt, make you stressful, competitive or conflicting. It makes you want to pretend to be something you're not instead of living in the reality of what you are. If you're caught in that, that's more of a religious conversation. The kind of godly conversations out of which community rises are conversations that are very different. I'm referring to those that are more relaxed. They're real. They're enlightening and refreshing as well as encouraging. You go away from them wanting to trust God more, wanting to follow Him with more of your own heart. Those who set you at ease in God's life are those who are having a better conversation with God than the performance overtones often associated with religion. You might find people like that in more established congregations if you attend one, but you can also find them outside of that. It may not be God's first priority to connect you with these kinds of conversations, but don't press it. But in His time, God will bring you into His family. It says the Holy Spirit sets us in the family as He desires. He'll bring people alongside you when the time comes. It may happen first on the Internet. A lot of people do, conversations by E-mail or Skype, with folks have similar heart and passion for God, and that can grow into some lovely things. But eventually, God will give you some local connections, people to walk with, maybe even just be starting their journey. They may not even know they're on one yet. But they're people you can be real with, they're people you can care about. And if you find that reality, you find the hope of a relationship growing that'll invite you into the larger community, God's building in the world.