Neighbor Groups: Empower Communities Sample

Partnering With Jesus

Think back to the gift analogy, but today, let’s imagine it differently. Your friend’s birthday is coming up, but you’re so worried about getting the wrong thing that you don’t do anything. You don’t buy a gift. You don’t show up to celebrate them. You ignore it all together. 

Your friend would likely be hurt, and you wouldn’t feel great about your decision either. It’s a pretty extreme example, but we’re sometimes tempted to have this response when confronted with needs in our communities. 

We’re all wired with a desire to make a difference. We want to help others, serve others, and love others. But in our desire to help, we’re often caught between two responses. We either ignore the problem because we think our efforts won’t make a difference, or we immediately activate without taking the time to get to know other perspectives. 

Both responses miss the mark, limit our impact, and rob us of the opportunity to build our faith. 

We can navigate this tension by considering the idea of community empowerment. We see a striking example of this in John 6 when Jesus feeds more than 5,000 people using just five loaves of bread and two fish.

Let’s set the scene. Jesus had been teaching the people for hours, and He knew they needed to eat. But instead of miraculously making it rain food from the sky or snapping His fingers to fill their stomachs, He invited His disciples to brainstorm the solution. 

After some initial scrambling among the disciples, Andrew finally speaks up: 

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”  John 6:9 NIV

Jesus then tells the disciples to have the crowd sit down in groups of 50. Holding the bread, He blesses it, and then it miraculously multiplies as the disciples keep handing it out. 

The provision came from God through what the people in the crowd provided. And Jesus gives us that same opportunity to partner with Him to bring about His Kingdom restoration here on earth. 

We can extend that same privilege to others by allowing people to offer up what they have—however seemingly small and insignificant—to make a difference. 

So when it comes to changing our communities, serving people, and solving problems, it starts with recognizing that we aren’t the saviors in the story. Only God can multiply our resources and efforts to do the miraculous. But He does invite us to play a part in the solution by listening to others and combining resources with others.  

Pray: God, thank You for inviting us to partner with You to bring about more of Your Kingdom here on earth. Build my faith in who You are, trusting that You can multiply gifts and resources to do the miraculous. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

Challenge: Spend some time thinking about the feeding of the 5,000. Consider these questions:  

• Like the boy in the story, how could I freely offer up my gifts and resources for the good of others?  
• Like Andrew, how could I see others and recognize what they bring to the table?  
• How could I grow my trust and faith in who God is?