There are so many benefits and advantages of living in community. I’ve lived long enough to experience both life in healthy community and not in healthy community, so I know from personal experience that healthy community makes a tremendous difference.
Community is more than just being with a group of people.
For instance, there are many married people with a family who are lonely. Just having people in the building with you, doing things with you, does not cure loneliness because that in itself is not community.
Being with a group, membership in a club or organization, is not necessarily living in community. We can officially be part of a group and still feel painfully out of place.
We all long for true community because God put it in our DNA. We are wired to hunger for community. We are designed and created to flourish in community. So, if we do not function in the manner for which we were created and designed, it has a huge impact on us and our lives. Without true community we will suffer various degrees of loneliness.
Loneliness can have significant negative effects on both mental and physical health.
Mental health effects of loneliness frequently include …
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Stress
- Cognitive decline
- Alzheimer's disease
- Increased risk of suicide.
Physical health effects of loneliness frequently include …
Once these symptoms begin, the results are often cyclical: Reduced social engagement and increased isolation tend to follow. The longer a person lacks community they have an entirely expected decreased sense of belonging, and difficulty coping with stress. All of those pressing issues lead to increased risk of substance abuse.
Loneliness is also widely known to have a cumulative effect, meaning that the longer a person is lonely, the more severe the health consequences can be. It can affect life expectancy in multiple ways.
This is why I believe the local church is the hope of the world because it creates the environment and on ramps for you to be able to live in community. Jesus followers define it is a group of people unified by their shared faith in Jesus Christ, committed to living out God's love, mutual support, and worship through actions like studying Scripture, praying, serving, and willingly being accountable to each other for a path of spiritual growth and growing likeness to Jesus. Community reflects the early church and is a demonstration of God's love to the world, forming a spiritual family united by the Holy Spirit.
Here at NewPointe, we have a great opportunity for you to begin to build relationships and deepen them and experience true community the way in which God has wired you, designed you, and created you to know.
September 14, we kick off our group sign-ups. The theme is how to build courageous and bold faith. If you have been part of a small group, you already know how these groups build the community you crave.
If you are struggling, stressed, feel depressed or discouraged, or living life without a purpose, take our invitation as a message from the God who created you and loves you. He is inviting you to be able to experience His love in a way you can feel through community.