Definition of community from Wikipedia – A community is a social group of organisms
sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. In human
communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks and a
number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the
identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.

Community is one of those things that we talk about freely in the church, but it is hard to achieve. Personally I believe it is because we are involved in so many communities we find ourselves stretched to the limit. Since we are in various communities (read below) we should be engaged in encouraging people to experience Jesus where they are.

John 4:27-30 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Communities we live in:
Home, Church, Work, Municipalities, neighborhoods, schools, businesses, sports teams, social groups, clubs.

Our communities are in need of change. Our lives are in need of change. Our world is in need of change. It is not impossible. It can be done.
God wants to change our lives, our communities, and our world. The problem is people resist what God wants to and he will never force you to change. If you are sincerely seeking change in your life, it has to start with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you becoming a follower of Christ.

HOW DO WE CHANGE OUR COMMUNITIES (THE ONES LISTED ABOVE)?

ONE LIFE AT A TIME

Jesus spoke many times to large crowds about his mission, but he left the example for us to follow by sharing with people one on one.
When we follow this example we can make a huge impact in our communities.
In the story in John 4, Jesus did not go to the woman’s town; he went to her. She had a storied past. She had been married 5 times before and now she was living with a man who wasn’t her husband. She was a social outcast.
She had nothing to lose but she had everything to gain. Jesus knew that if she would change her life, she could change her community. She repented (change of life, not just change of mind) and accepted Jesus as the Christ.
She had a radical life change that others could see.
Verse 39. “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony. “He told me all I ever did.”
Her testimony was  “He told me all I ever did.”
If you are a follower of Christ, you have a testimony that could change one life that in turn could change a community. All because Jesus knew where her hurt in life was and he was able to quench the thirst in her soul.

In Luke 15, Jesus shares a parable of the value of one life.
"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”


ONE CHURCH AT A TIME.

The church is the hope of the world. It was created by God, not man and Jesus Christ died for the church.
In John 4:40-42 Jesus established a community of believers in this town.
So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

Community is something for which we need to grow a hunger. As we grow in faith and continue to walk our unique paths, we also have to be strategically seeking out those people and places where a life of sharing can occur.
Our goal is to do church in the community, not to have a church in the community. What this means is that it is our goal that each of you be involved in a Bridge Group that meets each week for Bible Study and community building. It means that you serve by going out and giving away free gasoline, free nine volt batteries, free bottles of water, cleaning windows, putting plastic on windows for winter for those who need it. It is about taking church outside the four walls.

Here is what the definition looks like lived out by individuals and churches:
It is:

• Not simply how many people come to our church services, but how many people our church serves.

• Not simply how many people attend our ministry, but how many people have we equipped for ministry.

• Not simply how many people minister inside the church, but how many minister outside the church.

• Not simply how many ministries we start, but how many ministries we help.

• Not simply how many unbelievers we bring into the community of faith, but how many       ‘believers’ we help experience healthy community.

• Not simply counting the resources that God gives us to steward, but counting how many good stewards are we developing for the sake of the world.

• Not simply how we are connecting with our culture but how we are engaging our culture.

• Not simply how effective we are with our mission, but how faithful we are to our God.

• Not simply how much we immerse ourselves in the text, but how faithfully we live in the    story of God.

• Not simply how many people we bring into the kingdom, but how much of the kingdom we bring to the earth.

We have the vision of being a church that starts other churches in Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, and Cuyahoga counties.
We believe that God wants to use Bridge Church to be a catalyst for reaching Lake County, which is the least evangelized county in the State of Ohio.
We dream of a building on Route 20 that will be used every day of the week by the community for meetings, a place to hang out around a fireplace and have a cup of coffee at a café that is open throughout the day. The building will not be just for Bridge Church, but it will be a community center, a hub for Perry, Painesville and Madison.