Building a Healthy Community Through Christ-Centered Relationships

1. "The truth is that we do not do relationships very well in today's day and age. There's a lot happening in breakdowns, in marriages, families, kids, friendships. And the truth is that the way of Jesus is intensely relational. Relational. The way of Jesus is intensely relational because the God that we worship is a God of community. Even within himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God himself has community. God created us in his image to have relationships and connection with one another. God said it's not good that man should be alone. So God is a God of community. He created us to be people of community." [05:03] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Throughout his whole life, Jesus never accumulated physical things. He did not care about accumulating money. He did not care about accumulating possessions. He didn't care about accumulating power. The only thing that Jesus accumulated in his lifetime was people. And he brought them with him. And the only thing that you can bring with you into God's kingdom, on the other side of eternity, it's not money, it's not your car, it's not your house, it's people. The only thing that we can bring with us." [06:55] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "In order to follow Jesus, you must live like Jesus. In order to live like Jesus, you must learn how to do relationships and how to do community well. And healthy community is not built by chasing after something new following the latest trends. Healthy community is built by rediscovering the eternal truth that is in God's word." [07:20] (25 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Healthy community isn't built by chasing after something new. It's built by rediscovering the eternal truth of old that is in God's word. And the last mindset shift is from get to give. There's so many similarities between how you handle relationships and how you handle money. In the book of Proverbs, it says, one person gives freely yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly but comes to poverty." [26:54] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The only determining factor between those two people is the commitment level of the individual. And it's the same in church. There are Christians that have been following Jesus for decades. They've been part of a local church for decades. And they're getting frustrated because they're not seeing very much growth. You can have somebody who doesn't know Jesus at all, gives their life to Jesus, and within six months, the growth is exponential in the fruit of the Spirit that's coming out of their life. The only determining factor between those two people is their commitment level to wholeheartedly following Jesus." [15:03] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "The second mindset shift is from me to we. I don't know if you know this, but church is not a retail business. Juliet and I are not here trying to make you customers. We are here trying to help you to be contributors. We're not here hoping that you'll be a church critic and give a Yelp review. We're here hoping that you'll be a co-laborer in Christ. We're not here to try to get you to be a bunch of attendees that sit around and listen to Juliet and I all day. We want to equip you to be a minister of the gospel to go into your life, into your workplace, into your families and outwork the mission of Jesus in and through your life." [18:31] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And so at Elan Church, that's why we have community groups. Because Juliet and I cannot effectively pastor the entire church ourself. And we wouldn't want to. And so what we're doing is we're releasing, we're empowering people to be able to look after and care for after one another. The goal at Elan Church is not attenders. The goal is to equip you to be a minister of the gospel. To minister to one another. Because in a healthy church, no one person does everything, but you. But everyone does something." [25:16] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "2,000 years later, after Jesus lived, died, was resurrected, said wait for the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit showed up at Pentecost, thousands of people were getting added and the church was trying to figure out how do we structure for this growth. They started meeting in temple courts and from house to house. 2,000 years later, Jesus is still alive. He is still reigning on the throne. He is still alive. He is still pouring out his Holy Spirit. He is still fulfilling his promises. He is still loving us even though we don't deserve it. He is still saving, healing, restoring, redeeming and delivering. And he is still using his church to do it. And he wants to use you. And he wants to use me." [29:07] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "The goal of the church of Jesus Christ is not to come on Sunday and tick a religious box. It's certainly not to come twice a year on Christmas and Easter. It's not to come on Sunday, tick a religious box, and then come on Tuesday night and tick another religious box. Yeah, yeah, I did my religious obligation for the day. The church gathered together daily in the temple courts. And so coming on the temple courts or our Sunday worship or house to house, our community groups, that's like the bare minimum, right? We should be constantly living in a constant state of community nonstop where we're meeting up with a friend from church for lunch." [33:05] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "And so what's the goal for today? Join a community group. And as you do, shift your focus from me to God. Because God designed you for large group worship and small group fellowship. We worship him not to make ourselves feel good. We worship him because he's worthy as a response to who he is. And when you find him, you'll find yourself in him. The second is shift from me to we. Because there are other people in your group who need you. There's other people in your group that you need. And that happens when we get fellowship with one another. And shift your focus from trying to get to trying to give. I promise you if you show up to a community group and your whole focus is how can I bless every single person here? How can I pray for everybody? How can I serve somebody? How can I help them? What can I do to be a blessing in their life? I promise you God will bless you abundantly. Because those who are a good friend end up having good friends. You are blessed. You are blessed. Be a blessing." [33:59] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)