Happy New Year!
If you’re thinking about resolutions, you’re not alone. This season naturally invites reflection and motivates us to set goals for the months ahead. As you do this, I want to encourage you to pause and consider some important questions: Are you thriving spiritually? Do your relationships reflect mutual care, where both people feel seen and valued? Does being part of the body of Christ bring you genuine joy?
In 1 John 1:7, he tells us, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” As Pastor Andrew notes in his sermon, “Fellowship with One Another,” we have a specific call to love those in the body, and this love cannot be out of step with God’s Word. Walking in the light and loving one another well require both humility and courage - being open about our own sin and engaging with the ways others have sinned against us. The Journey Group is an opportunity to step into this kind of deep, transformative fellowship.
The Journey Group is a 12-week, confidential small group in which we seek to view trauma and brokenness through the lens of the Gospel. Before going through the group myself, I wrestled with fears about revisiting old wounds. I worried If I talk about my family’s trauma, am I betraying a sacred trust? What if giving voice to my pain only makes it worse? These fears were deeply rooted in me for years. As a result, I resisted allowing God and others to bring healing and restoration to the hurt within me, and I struggled to fully see and embrace the hope we have in Christ.
We need one another to help us see ourselves rightly before God, and it is a sacred responsibility to walk alongside others as they do the same. The Bible tells us that Jesus did not avoid human suffering, nor was he consumed by it in an unhealthy way. The calling we have in scripture: bearing one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), weeping with those who weep (Romans 12:15), encouraging one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11), and being devoted to one another in love (Romans 12:9) was modeled perfectly to us by our brother Jesus. In his book, Telling Secrets, Frederick Buechner recalls a decision he made to sit with a friend during a crisis: “I also saw for what was maybe the first time in my life that we are called to love our neighbors not just for our neighbors’ sake but for our own sake, and when John wrote ‘He who does not love remains in death’ (1 John 3:14), he was stating a fact of nature as incontrovertible as gravity.”
Dear ones, Christ demonstrated the holy ministry of presence for us and when we enter into it with one another, the Spirit knits us together and makes our hearts burn within us. The fellowship that we have within this kingdom family is where hope is found and enduring joy abides.
If you desire to know more about the Journey Group taking place this winter/spring, you may contact Pastor Andrew.