Anticipate the all-pervasive, all-encompassing nature of God’s call to give him your lives unconditionally (1 Peter 4:2). Believe in God’s faithfulness to provide the grace and strength necessary to complete all he calls you to and at the same time to provide for all your needs (1 Corinthians 1:8, Luke 12:31). Trust God. Don’t be overwhelmed with what you think he will ask you to do. Gently and firmly he will enable you to do everything he asks of you today and will lead you into new tasks tomorrow. His re-echoing question is, “Do you trust my love enough to do my will today?”
Go beyond a vague commitment to God alone toward a total commitment to one another as the body of Christ, the incarnate presence of God in the midst of the world (1 John 4:20). Offer yourselves to each other without reservation and receive each other without reservation. Rely on one another’s total commitment and call each other to it. Love each other in truth, boldly and compassionately. By continual teaching, encouragement, and exhortation, help each other to recognize the choices between God’s will and self-will. Support each other in carrying out these choices realistically. Those who answer God’s call on their lives will increasingly express Christ centeredness, willingness to give themselves. These will be drawn into greater authority and responsibility, into ever deeper servanthood. Those who continually express self-centeredness, unwillingness to give themselves, unwillingness to hear God’s call on their lives should be expected to live out their choice in a more suitable surrounding, i.e. outside the community.
Learn forbearance, each with himself and with others. Don’t expect each other to be already whole and well and to have totally rejected sin. Don’t expect instant healings of emotional problems and relationships, instant freedom from habitual sin. Don’t be discouraged when new depths of relating seem only to bring out more sin. God is bringing to light in each person all those dark sin-damaged areas of the soul that he wants to heal. Healing in these areas takes place gradually through confession, forgiveness, and death to self -- all experiences which are threatening, frightening, painful, and demanding but by God’s grace, life-giving and joyful.
Learn to be expectant yet patient. Don’t attempt to do too much too soon. When two or more people have committed their whole lives to each other in Christ, they must first begin to be drawn into greater love with each other. Out of this walking together will arise deeper unity in fellowship and worship. Out of this unity arise leadership, ministry, and structure suited to the particular needs and situation of each community. As the community increases, continuous teaching and sharing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit should go forth so that the process of drawing into unity and maturity is constant. Forms of worship and fellowship, ways of sharing and ministering, activities, interpersonal relationships, areas of emphasis all change: only the call for total givenness to Christ and to each other remains the same.
When this article appeared, Rev. Fr. Bill Grissom was rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas.
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