Community at Northpark

Bob Monts

2 years ago

Community at Northpark

The cultural milieu of our time has a love/hate relationship with the concept of community. Community is often defined as a group of people with a common characteristic or interest interacting together to forge a sense of connection or bond. People by nature desire a connection and a bond. They desire to be part of something that gives them a sense of purpose and direction. People love a community that provides the bond they seek.

There is the other side of the love/hate connection that needs to be considered. More often than not what we experience are communities rather than a community. Yes, humans have lived in multiple communities and not a single community throughout history. The fact that there are communities of different types is to be expected considering the diversity that we live with every day. The result is that the complexity of diversity creates multiple communities. The result is communities experience a degree of tension. Each of these various communities create barriers, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally to those outside the particular community and tension boils up.

it raises the question can a diverse humanity find a community that can embrace various communities while acknowledging and valuing diversity. Can there be a connection or bond between people who are different? What would such a community look like?

At Northpark we believe that there is such a community that offers diverse people a bond, a connection, and purpose that embraces diversity. That is the community we love and the community Northpark desires to be. Life at Northpark seeks to be a place of community. A place where we let God love us and let God love others through us. Our community recognizes that God loves all people and desires that all would come into his family. Our desire for community is rooted in the description of community found in the Old Testament and New Testament scriptures. We seek community that is found in the recognition that we live in a world of discord created by sin. But in Jesus Christ we can find unity and communion in the forgiveness offered by Jesus, which in turn breaks down walls of hostility between communities and creates a true bond.

Northpark is an imperfect community made up of imperfect people who are seeking to find their identity in God who is greater than our imperfect humanity. Thus, we struggle to find community in the world as it is and the world that the Old and New Testaments say can be. We seek to be caring and tender toward people who struggle to find community. If you desire community, we may be what you are looking for. Pastor Lonnie reminded us that people are not our enemy. Rather, our enemy is the unseen one who stands behind and influences our culture. We believe community is found in a loving God who constantly seeks to gather the hurting and disenfranchised into a community who have been transformed by his LOVE.

We seek to build community by letting God love us and let God love others through us. We would love the opportunity to help you find community at Northpark.