Two Are Better Than One

My weekly blogpost on the CTK Wilbraham website:

While this week has been really busy for me (thus the late blog post), it's also been a week of great fellowship and great learning at Christ the King.   While getting to know many of you better over dinner, during adult forum and at other times, one notion has continued to come into focus for me: the gift of community.  One member of the congregation recently told me "Christ the King is a small congregation, but it's mighty!"  After spending almost a month now with all of you, I couldn't agree more, and it's due to the strength of the community here.
From singing in the choir, to organizing coffee hour, to serving on church council or writing the weekly bulletin, it seems like almost everyone at CTK is actively involved in life of the congregation.  While other churches may be bigger or have a larger budget, I honestly think that it's a pretty rare blessing to find a congregation that has such a high percentage of its members contributing to the community.  First, I think it's important to celebrate and thank God for having such a strong community.  Second though, it's also important to ask how we can be good stewards of such a blessing.  The following passage from Ecclesiastes really sheds some light on that notion:

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.  For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone?  And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one.  A threefold cord is not quickly broken (Eccl 4: 9 -12).

I've been reading that Bible verse to campers the first night of camp at Calumet since 2003, but this week the first struck me in a brand new way.  The message of helping and supporting a friend is obvious, but I think there's more here, particularly in the part about having a good reward for toil...  what is that reward anyway?  Outside of being able to achieve more together, the experience of working together allows for even greater grow as a community, thus adding to our reward.  While being a good steward of community does indeed involve achieving and doing God's work in the world, it also involves learning from that process of achievement.

God's peace,
Dustin