Connect: We Were Not Meant to Do This Alone

In this episode, we explore the first of the Five Behaviors of a Disciple—CONNECT—and why intentional relationship is the foundation of spiritual growth. You’ll discover how God created us for connection with Him, with the Church, and with the Community, and why isolation, busyness, and independence are some of the greatest spiritual threats we face today. This conversation will challenge you to move beyond casual attendance into meaningful spiritual community and to see your everyday relationships as God’s mission fields for life-changing discipleship.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Discipleship Tool Podcast. I'm Andy George, and I want to thank you again for joining me on this particular episode. You know, there's a quiet tension that exists in every area of our leadership, whether it's in ministry or it's business or it's in family. And this tension I found is typically between settling for good enough and pressing towards wholehearted devotion. You know, as I reflect just on our culture and society, I wonder how many times we're just settling for, well, that's good enough. And I think there's certain things in our life and certainly that we do where, eh, maybe good enough is okay and actually good enough. When we talk, though, about discipleship, we talk about connecting today in this episode. It is way beyond just settling for good enough. We're looking for that fully devoted, wholehearted devotion to Jesus. Jesus never called his disciples to be partially committed. He didn't say, follow me when it's convenient. He said, if anyone wants to follow me, they have to deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow me daily in Luke 9, 23. He said things like, You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. In fact, as I think about what Jesus does when he comes, he doesn't necessarily tell us to do anything less than. He tells us to love more, forgive more, give more, be more generous, be more joyful, serve more. In other words, there's no halfway in this kingdom that we're in. And a disciple isn't just a believer who thinks and knows about God. A disciple is a becomer, becoming more and more transformed to be more and more like Jesus in his image by following his teachings and his ways. And that transformation comes to life through those five essential spiritual behaviors we talked about. Again, as a summary, connect, grow, serve, pray, and give. And today we're gonna jump. This episode is solely dedicated to the first one to connect. This is so critically important in our process to become more and more and more like Jesus. So here's the big idea of why connecting matters. We were created for connection with God, with other people. Isolation stifles our spiritual growth, but intentional connection can foster life-changing relationships. From the very beginning, God said it's not good for man to be alone. The New Testament reinforces this truth time and time and time again. Jesus created us, God created us for relationships. In fact, even in Hebrews 10, 24 to 25, it says, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, but to encourage one another. It is so important that we encourage each other as we move forward and as we go forward in our own personal journey. This is so critically, critically important that we all understand why connecting actually matters. Spiritual growth does not happen in isolation. Faith is personal, but it is never meant to be done in private. So, yes, our faith is a personal faith we have, but it's meant to be lived out in uh community with other people. You know, loneliness, busyness, and independence, these are spiritual threats in our culture today. If we're not careful, we can find ourselves isolated and alone and and busy and and independence, but those could actually threaten and hurt why it's so important for us to connect at a deeper, deeper level. So there's three dis uh there's three distinct directions around connection. In fact, if you want to, just in your mind, just imagine a triangle and then the middle of the triangle is the word uh connect, and that's right in the middle of the triangle. And then we have uh things around it like connecting to God, connecting to others, and connecting to our community. And this is where we find ourselves here, that in each one of those corners, you got God at the top and to the church and to the community. This is what we're gonna talk about here in just a moment. This is the foundation of everything, by the way, because I don't know how, not sure quite how you can grow in your discipleship or even grow in relationships for that matter if you're not connecting. And so let's talk about these. How do we actually then connect to God? Uh let's just start there. Like that, that's a big piece of what discipleship is. It's, it's I'm I'm trying to connect to God because I want to be more and more like Jesus. I want to follow his teachings and his ways. So I got to connect with them. And so here's just a few ways that we connect with God. There's a few key things of how we connect. We connect through worship. So obviously, as we worship him, we are connecting with him. We connect through the scripture. You can't, you can't uh again grow and connect and understand God if we don't actually read what he gave us. He gave us literally 66 books that describe how we should live our life and how we should engage with him in those lives. And so uh we worship him, we read the scriptures. Uh, communion is another important way. I love our communion time together. Just communion with God, uh, communion with other people, not just actually taking the elements of communion. That is definitely part of it. It's a connection to God, it's remembering what he did for us, but just being in communion with him. Uh, baptism is another way that we're connecting with God. We're baptized uh into the faith and water and and spiritual baptism. You know, all these ways are connecting with him. We also connect with God uh through our own personal devotion time. That that time that you and I spend with God is so incredibly critical in our personal growth and maturity. You know, connection with God is not built on information. It's not just an information overload. And the warning I want to give you about going through the discipleship tool is that if you're not careful, you could literally just go through it and just check the boxes. Like you could read the equipment manual, you can go over the five behaviors, you can look at all the topic study guides. There's 50 of them. You can take the assessment, you can look at our next steps and our suggest the next steps, you can print off a PDF of how you're doing, and then you can just say done. And it's not about that. It's not about the information side, it's about relationships. It's the same way, right? It's not about a religion, it's about a relationship. We've all heard that before and understand that, you know, it's not about just checking off boxes. It's not about uh, okay, now I gotta be in discipleship, box checked. Okay, now I gotta go through a year to three-year journey, box check, okay. Now I gotta disciple somebody else, box check. I mean, it I think too many Christians, quite honestly, are just in box, check the box kind of Christians. When it becomes a relationship because of connection, it takes on a whole nother level of what that it just feels differently. It feels personal, it feels intimate, it feels like there's a great invitation that goes with it. These are all wonderful things that go with connections. And so Christianity and our faith, it's not just knowing about God. It's about walking with God. And the warning I want to give you right now, because I know we're only, uh I think it's like our third episode in this podcast and it's our first behavior. It's not just about knowing more stuff. One of the reasons why I'm so passionate about discipleship is because, quite honestly, I'm getting tired of just helping mature Christians become more mature. That's great. And that's important. What I really want, though, is I want people walking with God, not just knowing about Him, not just knowing, you know, scripture, and that's all fine and good. And yes to all of that. But walking with God, it is so intimate. Uh, it makes me get up in the morning and honestly look forward to just spending the day with God. That is what discipleship does to me. If it doesn't, then all I'm doing is trying to be a good person. And listen, it's not about goodness, it's about holiness. It's not about goodness, it's about faithfulness. It's not just about goodness, it's about falling in love with Jesus more and more and more. And this happens as we connect with them. Okay, enough about connecting with God. Let's go on to the second one. How about connect to the church? So again, we're thinking of a three-sided, obviously triangle and God and to the church and to the community. So connecting the church, and here's the thing: uh, I don't want you just to attend the church, I want you to belong to it. So whether you go to my church, the church down the street, you go to some church in some other country that's listening to this right now. Can I just ask of you, don't just attend church, belong to the church, own it, partner with it. If I could speak maybe for your pastor, uh, I'm just telling you, don't just show up on Sundays. Uh, own it, walk with us, journal uh be a part of what we're trying to build for the kingdom of God. Don't just attend. In fact, we have a statement that we use in our church that is uh is a rhetoric because it's so important, and that is attend one and serve one. I can't tell you how many people have told me, well, I don't know, Pastor, it's just everybody's busy. So just getting to church is just enough. No, no, it's not enough. And it's not acceptable. Attend one and serve one. Why not? I mean, we're gonna be here anyways, just get here a little early or stay a little late, go to one service, attend another service, go to a Sunday school class, then serve somewhere. I mean, just find a place to own it with us. So, how do we connect to church? Here's a couple obvious ways, right? More than just attending. You can join into small groups of some sort or just a group of some nature. Uh, membership or ownership if your church has those things. We have membership here, even though uh our church is uh it's not a congregational church, which means our church people don't vote on the color of the carpet or the budget or our events calendar or things like that. Uh, we do have membership because to me, membership is about ownership. When people are saying, yes, I want to belong to our church, they're saying, I want to help carry the vision and the mission forward. I want to own it with you. Uh, of course, you can join classes. These are always great things as well. Uh, you can uh care for one another. Another way to connect with the church is to care for the people inside of the church. Uh, you could actively participate in community life, show up to the events, uh, show up to the dinners, show up to the missions, serve projects, show up on Sundays, offer to help find a place to just be part of it. Because here's the thing, we all know this is true. And I'm gonna say uh a very uh Christianese statement. And here it is, ready? The church is not a building. This is so incredibly true. We found that out many years ago at our church. Um, in the middle of the night, I got a phone call because our church literally caught fire. And our church building here in the middle of our warehouse, uh, about 11 o'clock at night, I got a call that our church was on fire. And uh, and you quickly realize that, hey, a building's kind of nice and it's great to have a building, but it's not about the building. It's about the people. Uh after that, about a year or two after that, we had a storm in the area that uh water damaged our one of our main electrical panels and fried our entire church's electrical system. And we had to do church outside in August in North Carolina, under a tent for several weeks. And again, you quickly realize that was actually kind of nice. Yes, buildings are nice. And yes, air conditioning in North Carolina in the summer is very nice. And it's not just about the building. So whether you've got a big building, a small building, you're renting a space, you're meeting in a school, you're in a storefront, just remember it's not about the programs, it's not about the building, it is about the people. So when I say connect to the church, we're saying connect to the family. It's where we encourage each other, it's where there's accountability, there's correction, mission. It all comes to life when you and I don't just attend, but we belong. You will never grow into your full spiritual potential alone. You might grow and you might go a long way, but I'm not sure how you and I can grow into that fullness of our spiritual potential without other people around us in the church. Okay, the third area around connect is connect to your community. Now, when I say community, because I know I'm talking probably to a lot of Christians, I'm not talking about the church, because we use that word often, our community here at the church. I'm not talking about the church people in the building. I'm talking about your actual neighborhood, your workplace, your city, your zip code, your county. Uh, these are not accidents of geography. Uh you're here for a purpose and a reason. There's a reason why there's cities and states and towns and villages and everything else that we have. And here it is. Uh, these aren't accidental geographic locations, they are assignments of mission for you and for me. And I love thinking about it this way about loving my zip code. In fact, that's a statement that we use here. And I love that statement because it helps me think about it's not just the church's job. It's not uh the capital C church or your particular church's job to do everything for you to reach your community and your neighbors. Guess whose job that is? That's my job as Andy, as a husband and a father and a neighbor and a friend. Like it's my job and your job to be on assignment, on mission in our own communities. Yes, the church can do great things. Yes, the church might have big resources to do uh things that you personally can't do, but we are all called to connect to our community. And we can connect to our community in a lot of ways, right? There's there's outreaches, lots of outreaches. Uh, I know our church partners with a lot of community partners that are doing great things. I can go and plug in there, uh, workplace witness or business as mission. I mean, think about it. Maybe you're at the school, at the job, at the gym, in the community for a reason. And that reason isn't just to make money and get educated and play sports and get better in shape. What if the reason was for you to be the witness for Jesus in those environments? And of course, our everyday relational influences through our friendships and our neighbors and our partnerships. Like, what are you doing to know your neighbor or know your community? How are you involved? Because listen, God didn't save you from the world, he saved you for the world. In fact, Jesus in his own words says, My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you send them and protect them. And he prays for his disciples. You and I, we are not meant to live in little bubbles away from the world. We are meant to actually go into the world to be on mission, to do what God is calling us to do, to connect with other people. This is so critically, critically important. And I just love that statement that God didn't save you from it, he saved you for it. So why does this matter so much? Why am I so passionate about Connect? And let's be honest, we live in one of the most connected digital generations in all of history. Everybody's connected. And how many people are still lonely? Everybody, you can get on your phone and feel you got 5,000 friends and all these followers and all these people that you think you know because you watch them, but we are so lonely. Biblical community is so different than that. It strengthens our faith, it provides accountability, it sharpens our character, it advocates the mission and the vision of the church. And I'm just telling you again, you cannot become fully devoted in isolation. You're gonna grow and you can do some great things, but to be fully devoted and grow in that, it requires community. It requires connecting. Growth may start in private. And I do know that. But transformation shows up in our communities. Those things that you're doing in private to grow, and we'll talk about uh grow uh next week about or the next podcast about growth, but it's about how am I transforming and showing up in my community? And so here's a couple, uh maybe some questions to ask you. Uh and you don't have to necessarily answer these out loud or or write them down and just be honest. So here's a question: Are you consistently gathering in worship and in group community? Are you finding life and groups and community and gathering with other believers under worship? Who is speaking truth into your life? So when you think about just connecting and the accountability, who's actually speaking truth in your life? Have you put yourself in a position to allow somebody to speak into your life? Uh, where has God placed you to be maybe that light on a hill, maybe that bridge for the gospel to somebody? See, discipleship flows in in two directions, doesn't it? It's kind of like we need these Paul-type voices ahead of us, and we need these Timothy-type relationships behind us. So, in other words, we should be growing. Somebody should be speaking into our life, and then we need to turn around and speak into somebody else's life. This is the beauty of what I'm hoping happens as a result of going through the discipleship tool or something similar, that you will grow and be inspired and turn around and help somebody else grow with you. So here's what connect might look like in real life this week. What if you re-engaged in worship if you've drifted away? Maybe you re-engaged in the church. I love the local church, like truly love the local church. And I want you to be part of a local church. So maybe you've not been part of a local church, maybe you are using a reason of being hurt by a church at some point. Listen, I get it. Church earlier is real, and and there's a lot of churches out there that might not be your style, your fit, but I'll tell you what, there's one out there. I guarantee you something. There's something out there that you can engage with and worship. How about joining a group? Maybe, maybe getting part of a small group or a life group of some sort. Uh maybe it might stretch you a little bit, maybe you feel a little uncomfortable in that. Uh, but we also uh need to be grown and stretched. What about reaching out to somebody you haven't seen in a while? Right, just very practical. Maybe, maybe God can put somebody on your heart even right now, even as I said that. That that name, when I say maybe call somebody or text somebody you haven't seen in a while, who's the name that just popped into your heart? Who's the who's the the image of the person in your mind? Maybe reach out to them just to connect. Praying with a coworker, inviting a neighbor out to coffee or lunch. Let somebody into your story. See, this is this is all part of it. Connections grow one step of obedience at a time. So let's not think we have to do everything all at once. How about just take one step of obedience forward? Maybe that's what it takes. So, what is your step of obedience after you listen to this podcast? What's that one step that's happening? Here's the deal: you were created for connection, not just to attend church, not just to believe quietly, but really to live in a shared spiritual life with God, with your church, and with your community. You're not meant to walk alone. So just remember be in community with other people. Isolation slows down discipleship, but wow, connection can multiply it. Connection can multiply it in a huge, huge way. All right, I hope this encouraged you. Hope it challenged you a little bit about connecting. In our next episode, we're going to look at our second behavior, grow, what it means to be continually shaped into the likeness of Jesus. So until then, I'll be praying for you. I hope that you find that connection to God, to your community, and to your church, and that you continue in your next step in your discipleship journey. And we'll see you on our next episode as we talk around growth.