Community enhances everything...

Question: What do you do when it's too hot to do anything that requires movement, and when the A/C in your house can't keep up? Answer: Go play golf outside in the full sun for five hours!

But it was a scramble - always much fun, and it was a fund-raiser for a good cause (Family Promise, a new homeless ministry here in Brandon) - so the golf was essentially guilt free.

You can see my friends Gerard and Gary with me after we complete the last hole (the fourth, Jack, was taking the picture for me). The beautiful thing about "best-ball" is it enables even a group of fairly average golfers to turn in a decent score - in our case a 69. We only bogied one hole and came close to going really low.

It's essentially a small-group experience. Everyone brings what they have to the table; you learn the truth about the other guy's game (because it's not about what you say anymore it's about what actually happens); you play off one-another's strengths, and when things go south for one person the rest of the team has more than enough ammunition to bring them along regardless.

I've said this before and it will come out time and again in my writing and speaking - "Christianity is, at best, a team sport." We weren't designed to live alone and our creation didn't come with the idea that we should isolate ourselves in any way. Community simply makes meaningful life more possible.

I talked with a young(ish) man this week who is going through some real struggles in his home. I asked him what kind of support system he and his wife had. He said they were on their own. We've invited him to church, we've invited him before, and we'll continue to whenever we see him. He and his wife need the community of faith, simple as that.

Interestingly, everyone on my golf-scramble team contributed. I'll bet that if we counted it up we'd find out we used at lest 15 shots from each member. It's not that we all had the same ability... the truth is more along the lines of "There's a different dynamic at play when we do anything in community."

Notice I didn't say "committee". I said "community." Huge difference.

Grace and peace - DEREK