This Is What It’s Meant to Be Like

A Weekend That Looked Like Church at Its Best

I love when I get to use the word beautiful to describe the church and that’s how it looked this past weekend. It was our 2nd (now annual as next year is booked!) church weekend away and it was a fantastic time for a few reasons that I thought it would be good to recognise, record and reflect on here.

It was fun! Kids ran freely around the house and outdoor spaces at Castledaly Manor, making friends without effort. Teenagers stayed off their phones without being asked, climbed trees and raced down hills. A constant background noise of laughter and chat filled the place. Conversations ran long. Prayer spilled into corridors and doorways. When it came time to move on, people did not really want to stop.

As I tried to step outside to get ready for our Saturday night worship session around the bonfire, every door I walked toward was blocked by another group of people praying together. More than once, I found myself thinking, this is what it’s meant to be like.

Why Christian Community Is Different

Now, on the surface, some of this could look familiar. People go away together all the time. Sports teams, friend groups, clubs, workmates. They eat together, laugh together, sit around fires, and come home with stories. There is a real kind of community there.

But there is also something many of us recognise underneath all that activity. Community today is often thin. It tends to stay on the surface. People share experiences but still carry their lives largely on their own. Very few spaces invite us to be fully known or to allow our lives to meaningfully shape the lives of others.

Going into the weekend we felt that God had placed this topic of “building one another up in love” on our hearts; that it was to be the theme of the weekend. And so, we were determined that we wouldn’t just talk about it but make space to practice it together.

Built Up in Love: A Biblical Vision of Life Together

The weekend was a reminder of why and how Christian community goes further than surface-level belonging. See, scripture never imagines faith as something lived alone. The New Testament is full of calls to love one another, bear with one another, forgive one another, encourage one another etc.

There is no real biblical foundation for an isolated, self-sufficient faith. That idea is more a reflection of the individualistic culture we are immersed in than the way of Jesus. We were not made to carry life alone. The Bible is consistent in its call to deep committed loving community as both a witness to the truth of the gospel and a way in which God makes his presence known and experienced.

Built on that premise, what unfolded over the weekend felt different than any other social event because it was shaped by a deep claim. The claim that, in Jesus, we have been made one. Not just by shared interests or personalities or the things that might normally connect us, but by being joined to him and, therefore, to one another.

Stepping Out of Control and Trusting the Holy Spirit

So, that vision was always our hope going into the weekend, but it wasn’t without anxiety because this kind of community can’t be manufactured. While it does depend on people participating, on a willingness to open their lives and step beyond the cultural instinct toward self-sufficiency, it also depends on something more than that. It depends on God being faithful to the claims he makes in Scripture. That when his people step into obedience, His Spirit is present and active among them. That he does what He says He will do and unify them in a supernatural way.

As a leader, that places you in a vulnerable position. There is always a temptation to try to programme outcomes, to manage moments, to keep things within your control. But if this kind of life together is to be real, it is ultimately out of your control. It relies on the Holy Spirit moving in ways you cannot script and, in that sense, it is always a step of faith.

For me, there was a clear moment where that faith step happened. After opening the Scriptures and speaking from Ephesians 4, people were sent into small breakout groups where they had been intentionally grouped with people who they wouldn’t usually gravitate towards. I remember thinking, this is where it either works or it doesn’t. And then I watched people step into those spaces with trust and openness.

Stepping into Shared Life in Simple Ways

People who had been part of the same church for years but had never really talked beyond Sunday morning hellos began sharing honestly, listening intently and praying for one another. Older people, younger people, singles, families, different backgrounds, stages of life, and personalities. People who, outside of the church, would likely never cross paths in any meaningful way. And yet, here they were, treating one another as members of the same body. It was beautiful!

That kind of unity does not happen by accident. Scripture hods out that it’s supposed to characterise the church and set it apart from all other communities and groups. It’s supernaturally enabled and exists as a witness to the reality of what Jesus has done. It is possible because it is designed and backed by the Holy Spirit, but we need to intentionally pursue it. We can’t be content with less. It needs to be practiced.

Paul says that Christ gives gifts to his people “to equip them for the work of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” Over the weekend, that building up was visible. People experienced, at least in part, what it looks like to participate in shared life, not just as consumers, but as contributors. My genuine hope is that God continues to form this way of life in us as a church.

Practicing Shared Life Week by Week

This is one of the things that our home churches are designed for. They exist to make space for this kind of shared life week by week. A place small enough for people to be genuinely known, to offer what they have, to receive care and encouragement, and to practice obedience to Jesus together.

If someone outside our church were to read this, my hope is that they would see at Liberty something more than a group of people having a good time. That they would see a community formed around Jesus, living out a unity that cannot be explained by anything other than Him.

That anyone carrying loneliness or longing for real connection might recognise something they have been missing. Something that’s found in Jesus and reflected in His church.

An Invitation Into Real Community

Do you live in that kind of community? A place where you are known, needed, prayed for, and built up in love. And if not, what might be holding you back from stepping into it?