Worship in Relationships / Pastor Chris Zauner / 11.03.2025
Community and relationships can feel risky, and most of us know that from experience. Being known, loving others, opening yourself up—none of that is easy. But even with all the difficulty, relationships remain one of the most meaningful and rewarding parts of the Christian life.
Many of us carry stories of trying to be vulnerable and ending up disappointed. Maybe someone spoke carelessly. Maybe a friend betrayed your trust. Maybe a church experience didn’t live up to the hope you brought into it. When those things happen, it makes sense that self-protection becomes our instinct. It makes sense that we pull back.
But even with the risk, something in us knows we can’t flourish alone. Community is hard, but isolation is harder.
The Honest Challenge of People
People have been hurt by churches, by leaders, by friends. We’ve all felt the sting of a relationship that promised one thing and delivered another. And still, God calls us into community, not away from it.
Someone once asked, “What’s the best part of your job—and what’s the hardest?” The honest answer is the same: the people. The very relationships that stretch us are also the ones that refine us, sharpen us, call us up, and remind us who we are in Christ. They expose the places God wants to purify. They uncover parts of us we would never see on our own.
That doesn’t sound very efficient. But formation rarely is.
Our world teaches us to run from discomfort. If it’s challenging, find new friends. If it’s complicated, cut ties. But Scripture invites us to something better—to friendships that shape us, not just cheer for us. Because many of us don’t need more cheerleaders. We need brothers and sisters. We need people who love us enough to speak truth, to walk with us, to stay.
When God Calls You In, He Calls You Together
Whenever God calls you into relationship with Himself, He simultaneously calls you into relationship with others. Community isn’t the “graduate school” of following Jesus. It’s the everyday classroom.
Jesus didn’t call His disciples one at a time into quiet, separate rooms. He brought them together. He let them bump into each other, misunderstand each other, frustrate each other—and then grow together. The mess wasn’t an obstacle to maturity; it was the incubator for it.
You don’t have to have it all figured out to move toward community. You just need a willing heart that says, “God, I know this is hard, but I know this is what You want for me.” Even that one step of saying, I will move toward community, not away from it, can shift the whole trajectory of your life.
And here’s the best part: you’re not doing this in your own strength.
The Holy Spirit Makes Community Possible
God gives the Holy Spirit as our comforter, counselor, and advocate—His presence dwelling within us so that we can live in the kind of community Scripture describes. No one becomes this kind of person through sheer willpower. It happens because the Spirit is forming us into the image of Jesus, shaping us to love like Him.
Many believers feel paralyzed by relational expectations they think they can’t meet. But this isn’t about achieving. It’s about surrendering. It’s not about unlocking spiritual achievements—it’s about receiving grace and letting God work in you.
You don’t need to fix yourself before you enter community. You don’t need to qualify for belonging. You don’t have to earn the gift of grace that has already been paid for. You receive it—and then you learn to live it out with others who are learning alongside you.
That’s why Christian community is both risky and worth it. The risk is real. But the reward—growth, transformation, purpose, belonging—is greater than anything isolation can give.
