Session 2

Who can you turn to?

From Numbers: A 5-Week Devotional

You have to stay late at work, your kids need to be picked up from school, and you are in a panic. Who can you call? Who will come through when you’re in a pinch?

Our lives and our struggles may look different, but we’ve all experienced that moment where we’ve reached for the phone knowing we can’t do everything alone.

God created us to live in community. Community is more than showing up at church once a week and slipping out the back. Community is having people we can call in good times and bad times, in the middle of the day and the middle of the night. Community is not based on a public profile, but a personal connection.

In Numbers 2, the Lord told Moses and Aaron to have the Israelites organized into tribal camps or clans holding the banners of their family (Numbers 2:2). Breaking the nation into smaller groups made travel easier, but it also created an opportunity for close community among God’s people.

It would have been impossible for everyone in Israel to know everyone else. Tribes allowed people to be known. As a result, the whole nation was stronger and more effective. Problems could be addressed before they grew into disasters. People were easier to find, and it was much less likely that anyone would get lost or fall behind when they were part of a tribe.

We may not use the word “tribe" anymore, but the need for community is the same. The church is stronger organizationally when we are connected personally. When we’re under pressure in life, the support of friends within the church brings direction to our disarray.  As we grow closer to Jesus, we help others grow closer to Jesus, and the church grows stronger as a result.

Reflect:

• Who can you count on, even in the hardest situations?
• Who do you call when you want to celebrate good news?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how connected do you feel to others within the church? If connecting is your next step, a great place to start is by coming to Connect Classes.