Creating Communityনমুনা

Woven-together community – Koinonia

We added the final key to the intricate door, a cog whirred, and then before we knew it the light was streaming in and we had escaped! With four minutes left on the clock too! 

Escape rooms have become an increasingly popular group activity. As a team, you are locked in a room with a timer counting down, with the only escape being through a series of interlinking challenges. My work team decided this would be a great activity to do together.

As we attempted to escape, we quickly realised that we needed to combine all our brain power and skills. Each of us brought something different and together we were able to escape – not just one of us – all of us. 

Can you imagine trying to escape on your own? Most of us would struggle. 

In the great tapestry of creation, God has not made us all the same, but given us each a different thread to add. And, like thread, we are stronger when we are woven together. This is how our communities should look too. 

If we take ourselves back to the time of Nehemiah, we see people from all strata of society and all different places coming together to rebuild Jerusalem. They worked shoulder to shoulder, and what happened? They finished in just 52 days.

This is a perfect expression of a word which appears in the original Greek of the New Testament: koinonia. It means a fellowship of people uniting together with a shared sense of purpose. 

So often in our communities and churches, we can be nervous when someone a little different comes in, or intimidated by a person who seems to know so much more. We forget that God made us all different for a reason, and unites us in Christ. 

Within koinonia, diversity is instead a reason for celebration. 

Today, how can we celebrate our diversity rather than hide away from it? 

Challenge: Ask someone who speaks a different language to share a prayer with you in their language, or ask a church leader if you can try singing in a different language one Sunday.

Pray: Thank you, Father, for the wonderful diversity you have given us across the world. Today, help me to see the world through your eyes and reach out to people from all different cultures, backgrounds and languages.