These pages are designed for use to aid discipleship among Christians through individual Bible study, Cell groups, Home groups, or for meeting one to one.  If you wish, you could use the questions, while leaving the group to choose their own translation of the Bible.

The Lord is concerned with all His children.  He loves each one of us and has a special individual relationship with each of us - even though there are tens of millions across the world.  He is also concerned with us at a community level, locally, nationally and internationally.

There is an extra dynamic that the Lord brings to us spiritually when we meet together with His people.  There is a way in which the contribution of others will help us to see things in a new light, will encourage us in a new way, challenge us to move on in ways that we have not thought of before.  We need each other.   Fellowship.

Being together with others by its very nature puts us together with people who see things differently.  There are many ways in which people come to God, some of these ways can be a challenge to the way we see the Christian life.  Embracing this diversity among fellow believers strengthens our faith, and helps us to understand new aspect of who Jesus is.  Among People.

When we meet together as believers it is best if we are interacting with God.  This interaction is called worship.  The worship could be eating a meal together, it could be repairing a house, it could be playing sports.  Mostly when people talk about worship they mean singing together in community.  There is something about singing together that lifts our eyes to God.  It is not easy to explain, but once you have experienced the presence of God in such a situation, the explanations are not so necessary.  Singing together.

Each of us has direct access to the Lord in prayer.  The Lord has made it plain however that He gives special attention and He gives special promises to those who come together praying to Him in unity of heart.  This is more than merely saying amen at the end of a prayer.  There is a need to be in real agreement with one another and that agreement coming from a unity with Christ.  Prayer - group.

There community brings with it a safety in the hearing of teaching.  Sadly there are people who have been misled by teaching which has moved away from the solid foundation of Christ.  When we hear and interact over teaching in community there is a safety added.  People may have some teaching that is very clear, but it could be that the process of how  to implement it needs honing.  We need to expose what we believe to others, and allow them to challenge it.  Listen to teaching.

The Bible is full of pictures of this communal relationship.  Each of these pictures in incomplete in itself, but as each brings a helpful illustration of the whole, so together they bring a balanced dynamic of how our Lord sees us.

The Church is seen as the body of Christ.  Together we are Christ’s physical presence on earth.  So, when one of His children is killed for their faith, He feels as though He personally has died.  This pain is felt across the globe.  We in being the body of Christ are like different limbs with different functions.  The consequence of this is that we should be content with the part God has given us to do, rather than thinking we need to do it all.

The Church is seen as the bride of Christ.  Here we see the love Jesus has for His people.  We see the care with which He prepares us for the approaching wedding day, beyond the second coming.

The Church of Christ is seen as a Holy Temple, in whom He lives.  We his people each has a role to play and a different station, or stations within the temple.  These places of worship are all needed, but there are those who try to lift up their place ahead of the others.

God’s Community