It’s popular in Christian circles today to talk about creating community. It is argued that one of the greatest things lacking in most of our churches is a sense of community, that we all belong, and are headed somewhere together — and actually enjoying each other’s company as we do it!

Whole books are written about how to develop this community within your church. Church planters talk about founding communities of faith, hope, and love. Many churches will even put the word “community” in their name.

However, the more I read the Scriptures, the more I get this strange feeling that Jesus never really intended to create a community. Instead, my reading of the Gospels leads me to believe that Jesus never intended to found a new community and ask people to join it, but rather to find already-existing communities, and join with them. So he went to synagogues (the teaching centers), weddings, dinner parties, watering holes, and join in the community that had already naturally developed.

There were, of course, always problems in such communities, and Jesus frequently tried to heal the brokenness and pain that was present in the community. But this is a more natural way of developing community than by putting together a bunch of strangers and saying, “Now get along!”

So are you trying to “plant a church” or “reach out” to your community? How about rather than starting something of your own and asking them to join you, why don’t you find out what God is already doing in your community, and then see how you join them. Don’t try to found the community; just find the one that is already there.

Have you ever experienced a “Dark Night of the Soul”? When God seems silent, the Bible seems devoid of meaning, every day seems to grow blacker, and other Christians seems like aliens from another planet? In such times, you will often experience doubts and fears about things that you never would have doubted or feared in times of blessing and being close to God.

In these times, you will often hear Christians say, “Don’t doubt in the dark what God revealed in the light.”  In other words, if God taught you something, or gave you a vision for your life in a time of blessing and being close to God, then don’t doubt these things in times of darkness, difficulty, and depression.

I’ve gone through several “Dark Nights” in my life. And while I used to believe this “Don’t doubt in the dark” slogan, I am beginning to question it’s wisdom. In the first place, who defines “dark”? Isn’t it the storms of life, and times of feeling distant from God that are able to make us cry out for Him even more, and learn to trust Him even more? Such times can, of course, drive us away from God, but (as the shirt says) “If the pain doesn’t kill you, it will only make  you stronger.” Maybe dark nights are when God is at work on us the most! Maybe dark nights of the soul are actually brilliant days of refining fire! I imagine that when we look back at our life, we will see that it was in the “dark nights” that God was most at work in our lives.

Which means that the doubts and fears we have in such times may actually be from God. Maybe, the best think you can do in a dark night is question some of the things you thought you knew from the “warm and fuzzy days of light.” Maybe it’s the truths we learn in the thunderous dark that God really wants to teach us, but we long for the emotions and feelings of a day at the beach.

Let me give you a personal example from my own life. In the light of the day, I was a pastor. I loved being a pastor. Every day, when I went to work, I couldn’t believe that I got paid to do what I was doing. And I think I was a fairly decent pastor. Not the best, but decent. They were giddy times for me. My family suffered, but I personally enjoyed it. Looking back, I think it was the time I felt the closest to God.

The last three years of my life have been a dark night. Storms and distress. Fear and failure. Depression. Anguish. Anger. During this time, I became quite disillusioned with the “religion” of Christianity. I saw it as empty and shallow. My view of God changed. My view of “ministry” changed. Several elements of my theology changed. During this time, people kept saying, “Don’t doubt in the dark what God revealed in the day. Stay the course. Things will get better.”

But I didn’t go back.

And now, I am somewhere in the dusk (or dawn?) between the night and day. And I’m trying to decide where the true light was. Was it when I was a pastor? Or was that just “ignorance is bliss” and now I know the real truth, revealed by God in the darkness and the stormy sea? Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t go back to the way I was, or the way I thought, for anything. It was a painful route to get here, but I would do it all over again if it was the only way to learn what I have learned.

So maybe the darkness is light after all.

I’ve never been one for prepackaged group Bible studies. Generally, I disdain them. To put it crudely, (in the words of a famous line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail) I fart in their general direction. I can’t tell you how many hundreds of hours I have spent yawning and eye-rolling through such studies.

However, I was recently sent a group study which I not only like, but thoroughly recommend! Yes, this group study is worth the money you spend on it! It’s called The Tangible Kingdom Primer and is based on a book which I recommended last year called The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. The book itself is one of the best books I have read on how to live a life of evangelism and mission for church planting. The more I work on planting churches, and the more I read about the gospel and the kingdom, the more convinced I am that this book is a “must read,” not only for church planters, but for all who follow Jesus.

And now, the eight-week guide makes the ideas of the book even more accessible. This is a fantastic tool to help Christians become “missional” and “incarnational” according to the gospel. I highly recommend that groups of believers around the country go through this study while reading The Tangible Kingdom. The study contains stunning images, thought-provoking questions, and most importantly, missional insights into key biblical texts.

If you really want to follow Jesus, this little guide will show you what it is, how to do it, why we should, and (most often forgotten) where. (Did you know that it is hard to follow Jesus if all you do is “attend church”?) If you want to “reach out,” but don’t really know how, this primer is the place to start.

Each one of us, every day, are surrounded by hell. Children getting sold as sex slaves. Terrorists trying to blow people up. Fathers losing their jobs and getting kicked out of their homes. Couples going through painful breakups. Desperate women selling themselves just to pay the rent. Alcoholism, drug addiction, greed. Even in churches, hell is present with the backbiting, slander, and jealous quarrels that so often go on.

And just as Jesus came to a sinful world, He wants us to follow Him into places where sin and it’s consequences abound. Why? To offer love, hope, and forgiveness. I believe Jesus wants His followers to go to hell.

Who in your neighborhood is in the hell of loneliness? Can’t you reach out to them and offer some companionship? Who just got laid off at work and can’t pay rent? Are you able to call them up, and offer to have them live with you? Maybe they need a car, or meals several times a week. Maybe you can get involved in stopping the child sex slave industry which is growing here in the United States.  Maybe you can support adoption efforts, or show concern (rather than condemnation) for prostitutes and strippers.

The possibilities are endless. But if we are following Jesus, the last thing He wants is for us to be comfortable with our routine of attending church, reading our Bibles, and praying. He wants us to get out there, to people caught in the ways of hell, and reveal to them the ways of heaven.

I have long thought that nothing in culture is so good that it can be accepted “as is.” Also, nothing in culture is so twisted and evil that it is beyond the scope of redemption. God can take anything and turn it around to bring glory to Him. God can take anybody and raise them up to glory and honor. Each one of us is the perfect example.

However, while I believe that everything is redeemable, not every aspect about everything can be redeemed.  

Last week, I read the following comment by N. T. Wright who says it much better than I: “Christians are neither chameleons, changing color to suit their surroundings, nor rhinoceroses, ready to charge at anything in sight. There is no straightforward transference between any item of ordinary culture and the gospel since all has been distorted by evil; but likewise there is nothing so twisted that it cannot be redeemed, and nothing evil in itself.” (p 7).

So look around. Who have you given up on? Who is “beyond reach”? Who is “too far gone”? What places, countries, customs, events, holidays, and festivals have you written off as “of the devil”? Take those, and begin to think and pray about how God might want to redeem them for Himself.