Pondering The Master

August 2007

Interweave

In this last month I have been pondering the Walk quite a bit. It is interesting how we as Westerners often stress the individual walk to the point where it is all that counts. However, as I have begun preparing to teach a series on the book of Acts, God has been showing me more about the importance of the communal aspects of the Walk.

Over and over again the summaries regarding the growth of the early Church in Acts stress the community that the believers lived in (Ac 2:43-47; 4:31-35; 6:5-7; 10:44-48; 11:19-24). Our individualistic (or, as in this country, tribal) thinking tends to say that this was an ideal that could not be reached any more, an exception, etc. However, in watching our little fellowship grow and fail to grow, I’ve come to this conclusion: The corporate walk and the individual walk are totally intertwined. If your individual walk is failing, you will harm the corporate walk; and if the corporate walk is not maintained, you will lose support for your individual walk.

I am thinking on how I can pour into the corporate walk with my individual walk and how my individual walk can be supported by the corporate walk. One thing we are doing for the latter is that everyone in the Fellowship reads the same section in the Word for the day. It really is encouraging to know my brothers and sisters are reading what I am reading and it pushes me to read more regularly. How can you pour into the corporate walk of your church? How might the corporate walk of your church strengthen your individual walk? The two are interwoven and cannot be separated.

Copyright © 2007 J.M. Diener. All Rights Reserved.