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In trying to most accurately convey the true personality of this church community, here are the thoughts on community church irving of some members of the community.
david
God has had Shelley and I on a journey over the last few years and Community Church Irving is a part of that journey. The Spirit of God has put a question in our hearts that is causing us to ask what this church thing is suppose to be.
Admittedly, we are not that smart and our journey in to this question is not overly theological or intellectual. I think it is mostly driven by this overwhelming idea that it can't be as complicated as we've made it. Isn't church just a community of people that have decided to put their faith in Jesus and follow him into a reconciled relationship with our creator and father - God. Church isn't a gathering, an intellectual pursuit, a program or a club. It is a shared life in Christ.
Shelley, Samuel, Jeremiah and I are part of Community Church Irving because we have decided to share our lives with these people and whoever the Lord wants to bring to be a part of us. We need them. We are part of them, they are part of us and we are together imaging our father. Its that simple.
shelley
Over the past 3 years, the Lord has taken me on a really interesting journey about relationships. I grew up on terms like “personal relationship with the Lord” and even “quiet time” and things that encouraged my relationship with God to be between Him and me. I think there’s a certain truth to that, but maybe we’ve taken it too far and added our American independent, “it’s between me and Him and it’s none of your business” spin to it.
The perfect example of relationship or “community” (our favorite buzz word around here) is God. He is the Father, Son and Spirit, living in perfect community. He created man in “our” image, He created “woman” so man would not be alone. Adam & Even lived together “naked and without shame”. The communal aspect of God goes on and on through the Bible. Jesus even modeled it with the apostles.
I don’t think we were created to walk this path alone. And I think, for many people, “going to church” has become something I do on Sunday mornings for an hour or so. And even though we don’t want to think it, we feel like we need to check that thing off of our list of things to do for God. I want church to be a group of people who go through this thing called life and live this kingdom thing out with me. I want my relationship with God and with these people He’s put in my life to reflect the perfect community that God experiences with Himself. That requires honesty, vulnerability, self-sacrifice, but I think God promises it will be worth it.
brad
A few years ago I was at a point in my life in that the idea that I had of what this life should be like, and what I was experiencing in church, were not lining up. At that point, my wife and I were introduced to Community Church in College Station and all of the sudden it was like a light bulb went off for me.
At Community Church I saw and experienced some things that had a profound impact on me. I saw a place where it was all right to be exposed and broken, and people didn't try to fix you, they just loved you. I saw people that had needs, and others stepped up and met those needs without hesitation. I had also found a place where people, even pastors, were able to admit mistakes and be readily forgiven by the community. It wasn't a perfect place or a perfect community, but it was the best example of living in Christian community that I had seen before.
Those things are some of the things that I want and that I believe that God wants us to aspire to here in Irving. I want Community Church Irving to be a place where we can be naked and without shame in front of each other, I want it to be a place where needs are brought to the community and taken care of without hesitation, and I want it to be a place where broken people can come and be loved on.
laura
For as long as I can remember I have been taught about the Lord; who he is, what he did for me, and how to have a relationship with Him. In college I began to figure out what my personal "walk with the Lord" was. I learned more about prayer, reading the bible in a way where I could dissect it so that I could apply it to my life, sharing God with others, and living in a way where those around me could see Christ shining through me. While none of those things are bad, and all hold a valuable role in knowing and following the Lord, I began to create a list of rules and guidelines for myself as if praying or reading my bible "x" amount a day or talking to "x" amount of people a week made me a better Christian. When I didn't live up to my expectations I began to feel guilty. I didn't want to talk to anyone about it, though, because I didn't want them to know that I didn't have it all together. I wanted to appear as the happy go lucky girl who loved the Lord, followed him daily, and had everything in order, although that was very much the opposite of how I truly felt. Yes I loved the Lord but I had questions and doubts but didn't know where I could turn.
A couple of years ago God showed me Community Church and began to change the way I thought about my relationship with Him and with those around me. He showed me a freedom and peace that came when I listened to His Spirit guiding me instead of following some rules. He showed me a group of people that weren't afraid to be open about what was going in their lives and the things they struggled with and people being responsive and open to what they were saying. They were meeting each others needs and living life together more than just on Sundays. I felt like this was a group of people where I could finally be myself and share my questions and doubts. I discovered a joy in the Lord that I hadn't felt before and it came from the close relationships I had with those around me and the truth they were speaking into my life.
I am a part of Community Church Irving because I want to share with others what the Lord has shown me. I desire to live my life with those around me and grow with them in the Lord. While we may not have everything perfected, I do know that this is the closet I have felt to the Lord and am excited to see what he has planned for this church and for our community.
eric
When do a group of believers become a church? Does it happen when believers gather to hear teaching from the Bible? How about when believers come together to grab a meal together? What about the times when we are all just watching an episode of The Office? Do a group of believers become a church when they stop to take care of those in need?
Over the past few years God has been teaching me that the church looks a lot of different ways depending on a lot of different things. Take the churches in the day of the apostle Paul or the current house churches of China. There are also some churches that meet under bridges with the homeless, and I know of several summer camps that act as a church to the inner-city youth of our nation. To see the church by just one definition would take something away from God’s beautiful complexity.
Another thing He has shown me is that bigger is not always better (nor is smaller better). Better is better. So when I moved up here to Dallas, I decided to connect with this group of believers as an experiment to see what a church can look like when we throw all of the preconceived American-sub cultural Christianity out the window and seek what the Holy Spirit has to say to this group of believers.