My apologies to Charlie and Tony for the misfire on this post. You got comments on it before I even finished it!
Personal Touch is Not Enough: I often think about how long I sat in churches and hoped that I would better engage people. I am not all that outgoing according to Myers-Briggs. I would, however; prefer that my whole life came to me on a silver platter.
That said, one of the main problems in church is that we don't get to actually know people in the larger ones, though I have had the same issue with small-groups too. I even belonged to a men's group where we did all the right stuff - in fact it was a closed group and no new folks were allowed to attend. The result, we still didn't get to know each other, but we did get to know a lot about each other.
Yesterday in church, the pastor had us break into groups of four. We were each given one minute to tell the other three something significant about ourselves. It was pretty cool. Honestly I had written about it on my blog over a year ago HERE. (I secretly hope that he is reading my blogs, I do!)
The essence of fellowship (Greek Koinonia) is to be intimate. Like in intercourse, but in a fellowship way. It is a lofty goal.
Regular Contact: This series is about what you can do to achieve change in the church without complaining to leadership. The currency of relationship is time! It is one of the reasons it is so easy to an office or workplace affair to happen, you spend time together. (Add to that little or no investment in life's struggles, or commitment and there you have trouble brewing.) It is the same with godly friendships, they require time. The more regular, the better.
My wife and lament the loss of some close friends - people that we could be real with - people that we could say anything too. We are both rebuilding, but it seems to be taking forever.
Going the Extra Mile: Building relationship is not done with the soul, but with the character of Jesus, and the Spirit. There is a lady that sits near me in church, and she often gets cards for the people that are near here that she is trying to get to know; a birthday, the loss of a loved one, and anniversary she keeps track of them all. it starts with listening in the pew.
I had a friend that said the real Christians are the ones that show up when you move. Our last move, two ladies from church went and finished up at our old apartment; cleaning, and picking up until late into the evening or our move day.
There are lots of things that we can do in the Kingdom;some of them include relationship. Only God knows which one we are supposed to be doing right now - have you asked him?
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