Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been working our way through a book titled The Ways of The Alongsider: Growing Disciples Life2Life by Bill Mowry. The idea of an Alongsider might be an uncommon thought to some of us, but Bill does a great job detailing at the outset of the book. Then as we moved deeper into our understanding of what an Alongsider was we hit three topics of great importance to discipleship: A Way of Life, Intentionality and A Life of Prayer.
The next part of the Alongsider Discipleship ideology is relationships. It may seem like a given but we’re in relationships all the time. Everywhere we go we are in some sort of relationship. Whether it’s a passing relationship with the grocery clerk to the deeper conversations with our barber or hair stylist we’re having conversations and sharing life with one another quite frequently.
We’re not the only ones who spent time in relationships either. Jesus led this by example. Just thumb through the pages of the bible to see the times he welcomed his disciples into normal, everyday occurrences to just share life with them. He went to a wedding with them and ate dinner with them at people’s homes. It was a common occurrence to spend time together just getting to know each other. Jesus didn’t just wait for church events to invite them to come along. He didn’t even always preach at them when they were together.
Actually if you look at the story of Jesus attending a wedding, he had no plans at all to do anything out of the ordinary. It was only because his mom asked him that he actually did the miracle of water into wine. You see the point is simple: our world isn’t short on relationships but it is short on intentionally building them.
The church I serve has embarked on a campaign this summer to build community. We believe that relationships and community are vital to life. We believe that community doesn’t come quite as naturally in today’s society as it once did. To that end, we’re being catalysts to creating a movement of relationship and community. We’ve thrown parties and social gatherings throughout the summer months in an effort to get to know new people and build relationships with people we already know.
It’s been a great deal of fun. What would happen if you embarked on the challenge of meeting someone new today? Not for the sake of your local church. Not even because I challenged you to do so, simply because you understand how important relationships are to everyday life! So go ahead! I dare you! Make a friend. Take someone to coffee. Have a cold beverage with your neighbor. Share part of your story with someone where you live, work or play. Let God do the rest.
Being a disciple means we have to be intentional about our relationships with those where we live, work and play.
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