That being said, hopefully this will tie everything together in this three part series
of “What Is The Common Thread Community”.

It was about two years ago when I began to study one of the most life changing
passages of scripture. In Luke chapter 16 verses 1-13 Jesus tells this really
interesting parable about a dishonest manager, who takes what his master has
entrusted him with and uses it on what he deems desirable rather than his masters
bidding. What’s interesting though, (and you’ll have to read the parable) is that after
his master discovers what he’s done and how he’s been dishonest in an effort to
store up for himself treasure on earth, his master commends him. He commends
him!!? The reason being that, his master knew he was a son of this world, a child
of the devil, and he was being shrewd with what temporal hope he had. And Christ
says in verse 8; “for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their
generation than the sons of light.”

This one little statement shook my whole foundation. Jesus was drawing a truth
out that cannot be mistaken. Which is this: when we perceive the way that people
who live for this world use their shrewdness in dealing with their temporal future,
it should not even compare to the way we use our shrewdness in dealing with our
eternal future.

So often Christ followers forget that we have been given a charge from our King
to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”. Jesus said to use every
resource, every gift, every avenue as a means to invest in His eternal Kingdom. Not
this temporal dwelling.

Without this “Common Thread” running through all of us, then community is
useless. This is the cornerstone of The Common Thread Community. It is an effort
to gather like-minded believers with unique gifts, talents, trades, abilities, and
personalities, and be shrewd with them for the Kingdom of Heaven. The common
thread that runs through all of us is to expose and be exposed to the greatness of
God’s glory. He’s our master! He’s entrusted us with the resources we have. With the
abilities we have. Why would we EVER want to use them for any other purpose?

So whether it’s roasting coffee, writing music, organic farming, graphic design,
building homes, cooking, painting, sports, photography or anything that your mind
can imagine, we’re coming together as a community of believers, with a desire to

live simplistically, with great zeal and passion to get the hope of the gospel to the
nations. Ours included!

Everyone needs some coffee. Why not our coffee? Everyone needs pictures taken.
Why not our pictures? EVERYONE needs community. Why not this community? Why
not give yourself to something that is relying on the strength that the scriptures tell
us we have in the body. The church was never meant to function on Sundays alone!
In fact the battle is Monday through Saturday. How naïve of us to think that we can
win this battle apart from the army of God.

This is what I know to be true. I am here today because of the faithfulness of those
who have come before me and died never knowing the impact their shrewdness
would have on my life. The great cloud of witnesses that have prepared the way
through Christ so far. We are a results driven society, but more often times than not,
just like Jesus said in Luke 16, we will not ever truly know that results until our life
ends here.

His grace sustains us. His glory drives us. Our commission is to go to the uttermost
parts of the earth and make disciples. Every gift, every talent, everything else, is just
an avenue to get there.

What was it about this movie? The 3D? The cinematography? The story? The acting?
I think all of these were superb, but what it all centered around was the community
of the Navi people. The way they did life together. It was so intriguing to me, almost
heavenly.

Ok, I know I’m getting a little lame now. But this was how I felt. It was as if I was
seeing a picture of what eternity could be like when God’s people are in community
together.

The word of God speaks plainly at times of what life will be like once we’re in our
eternal state. Obviously no more sin, no more sorrow, no more suffering, Revelation
21:4, 8, and 27. Obviously we will worship our King for eternity, Revelation 7. But
there’s more than this. We will be in community with one another, and community
with Christ. Together we will see Him face to face. We will serve Him. And being the
good Master that He is, He will serve us, Luke 12:37. We will also be given tasks, and
responsibilities. And we will labor together, in community.

Can you imagine? Working and using our gifts in community and it not being about
getting ahead, or making lots of money, or storing up treasures here? This is the
vision of the community portion of Common Thread. I’ll talk about where Common
Thread comes from in part three of this blog trilogy, but this community, this life
together, this element that so drew me in to the movie has become a driving force in
my life through the mercy of God. To gather a community of believers who desire to
do life together in a much more truer sense than our culture deems suitable.

We were created to be in communion not only with Christ, but also with one
another. The Bible makes it crystal clear that we are strong together, and we are
weak alone. We see it in almost every other aspect of life. If we want to get in shape,
we try to find one or two people to join us in this effort. If we want to win in sports,
everyone knows there is no “I” in team. I mean, even girls go to the bathroom
together! But when it comes to life, we’ve been deceived that secluding ourselves
from community is the status quo.

Look, I’m not an idealist by nature, and I’m not delusional, well, most of the time.
But Christ is preparing us for a kingdom that, according to His word, is shaping up
to look a lot different than how we do life now. The Common Thread Community is
a small effort to begin to paint a picture of what the Kingdom, the Holy City/New

Jerusalem is going to look like. Remember, God said, it is not good for man to be
alone. If the Creator of everything deems something “not good”, I’m going with Him.

Now there are a few key layers to The Common Thread Community, or Common
Thread if you’re grammatically lazy like me. But in this first ever blog post I’d
like to focus on the two primary desires behind the name. The first, and not most
important, but definitely very important, is the pursuit of true community.

One of my great desires, and perhaps one of the things the Lord has gifted me with
most is to build community. I love people. I love being around people. I love working
with people. I love studying with people. I love eating with people. I love singing
with people. I love hurting with people. I love talking about Jesus with people. And
this is not just because I’m an extravert. We were created for community. It was one
of the basic fabrics of mankind for many many centuries, and the desire still exists
deep inside all of us. A beautiful picture of this is in Genesis chapter 2 when the Lord
is describing the garden that He had created for Adam to dwell in. He tells us about
these magnificent rivers, and the gold and the onyx and the trees and the fruit, and
then, after essentially describing Heaven on earth, God says; “it is not good that man
should be alone.” This is one of the most profound moments in all of creation! GOD
created this place! He put everything into place. He designed it. He perfected it. And
He told us all about it, and I believe He did this just so that He could say to us; “now,
see all of this, none of it is good if man is not in community.” Don’t mistake this as a
husband wife thing. Yes, that element is here, but this was bigger than that. This was
the institution of community through Adam and Eve and their children and their
children’s children, and …. well you get the picture.

Christ followers are described in 1 Corinthians 12 as a body. And we are made up of
many members. Well the very function of the body is dependent upon the rest of the
body. I mean what would the hand be useful for without an arm? Or a foot without
a leg? Or anything without a heart? Walk around for 2 minutes blindfolded and see
how useful your body is without its eyes. Now this isn’t to say we cannot function
without these parts. Just as people, can still function in this rampant individualism
that plagues us. But in the same way the eye adds strength to the hand, and the ear
to the eye, and so on, when in community with one another we find great strength.
Which is exactly what Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 is saying, that we are much much stronger
together than we are alone.

Ok, so I’ve got a good intro to community. I’ll stop here for tonight. Hopefully
everyone is with me so far. I’m sure next you think I’m going to try to get you to
sell your homes and move to a commune. Well, not quite. Not unless we can get
a “Momma G’s” and a “5 Guys” on the commune, then we might have to consider this
option!