Acts 2:42-47
42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Small groups started three weeks ago with my church and for the first time in many many years I am able to go to one! It's very exciting and I am so thankful for my church and the opportunities that I have to be a part of this community. My particular small group is a Post Sunday Gathering, meaning we discuss the sermon from Sunday and tend to go in more depth from what the pastor spoke on. Every time we gather to discuss I am reminded of how much I love to study my Bible (which is weird because I just don't enough), what is even more interesting is how excited I get about the possibility of teaching and sharing with others what I am learning.
I'm in school to become a teacher. This is the path I beleive that I am supposed to be on. But why? I could teach the word in a church as a Youth Pastor - I have the degree to do that... why is it that I get so excited about the Word and yet am not teaching it now? I think it may because I stopped studying and lost the excitement. I need to be constantly learning in order to share with others. Sounds simple enough, in fact, it sounds like that is how it should be... in my life however, it hasn't been.
The above passage is what we have been studying for the past two weeks. Do you know what the first thought that crossed my head as I started studying it was?... Camp... my thought was "wow... this would be a great topic to share/teach at camp during staff training...the whole idea of community, the idea of coming together, having everything in common, breaking bread together etc." Summer staff teams are amazing every year, but imagine what a staff team could be like if we/they really understood what it meant to live in community like this passage discusses, imagine what it would be like for counselors in the villages, on the deck during a meal, in Q-town, running activities, in staff meeting... EPIC! Life Like NO other! It's in community that we are best able to reflect Christ because it's in that community that we can Love like NO other! Wierd how my thoughts always return to camp.
