God, Football, and Community (conclusion)

If any of you had a chance to watch football on Sunday you probably noticed a new color upon the players uniforms, the color pink. No, they weren't trying to make a statement like T.O. or Ochocincco would do at times. They were simply raising awareness of this being breast cancer awareness month. The players are now auctioning off those pink uniform articles to raise money. What they are participating in is a partnership with the community, which is just another term for fellowship.

The word fellowship comes up alot within the church community. In greek, the word fellowship is koinia which means: sharing,unity,partnership,a society,a brotherhood. As believers we are called to have fellowship with one another. But, in the Book of Acts we are also called to share that "community" outside the church:

Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,
and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
(Acts 2:44,45)
Community is all about sharing; sharing God's love through our words, through our actions.
And through all of this God shows favor upon us as individuals, and as a church:

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46,47)

And in fact, earlier in this chapter in Acts we see the church receive the word from Peter gladly and they were baptized, and on that same day 3,000 people were saved and added to the church. This was God's way of showing favor upon that church, and He continued to do it daily all because they chose to give with simplicity of heart, and praise Him.

Through these hard economic times I have noticed the word "community" at work more than usual, through individuals and through churches. In my earlier post on this subject I had mentioned the Sports Illustrated article on the Detroit Tigers embracing their community; another tidbit from that article:
The Central United Methodist Church, just a block away from the Tiger's stadium, serves a free sloppy joe lunch (with the game available on television) during Thursday home games, to those less fortunate to have a ticket. Thus bringing even more community to a city that so desperately needs it.
The church can still be a powerful resource for the community today. We just need to bring that fellowship we have outside of the box.