Camp Week 2023 report: Community

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Posted on: 
July 28, 2023

Community is one of the most basic and integral terms for followers of Jesus. Community is a word that, rightly understood, speaks of both the earthy and the divine. The Trinitarian community of persons calls us into divine community through the earthiness of human relationships.

One of the main themes of Camp Week 2023 was community and its relation to ministry. Merle Burkholder drew us into the beauty and pain of community through three engaging talks highlighting the crucial role of community in cross-cultural ministry. Whether we are addressing the needs of the poor around us or encountering the challenges of overseas life and work, finding solutions through community is both practically helpful and biblically sound.

It is in community that the solution to humanity’s most basic problems are found. It is through community that we find wholeness and life. As Merle noted, poverty is the lack of shalom in all of its meanings, including financial, relational, and spiritual. To seek long-term solutions to these issues, we must accept diagnosis as a prerequisite to treatment. But no matter the illness, it is through community that healing and wholeness come. Ultimately, the community of God’s people points upward toward its exemplar—the life-giving community of the Trinity.

The Camp Week teaching on community was complemented by the group of like-minded persons brought together by common goals and a common allegiance. Through corporate worship, we celebrated our life in Christ and renewed our allegiance to Him; through stimulating conversations, our devotion to Christ was strengthened and his call on our lives was clarified; through shared meals, we enjoyed together the goodness of God’s material blessings; through sharing stories, the goodness and faithfulness of God evidenced in the lives of others gave us energy and courage to press forward.

—MN, All-Nations field member

Watch "Responding to Poverty with Community," by Merle Burkholder

Watch "Church Planting Teams as Community," by Merle Burkholder

Watch "The Power of a Sending Community," by Merle Burkholder


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Community Development
Mission
Camp Week
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  • “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17
  • “Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witness of these things.” Luke 24:47, 48
  • “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” Matthew 28:19
  • “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3
  • “That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the Gospel.” Ephesians 3:6
  • “That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:21
  • “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’?” Mark 11:17
  • “Ask of me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance.” Psalm 2:8
  • “Behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes.” Revelation 7:9
  • “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified.” 2 Thessalonians 3:1
  • “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16
  • “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
  • “As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country.” Proverbs 25:25
  • “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Psalm 19:10
  • “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You.” Psalm 22:27
  • “Truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” Numbers 14:21
  • “Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.” Psalm 96:3, 4
  • “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14
  • “That all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.” 1 Kings 8:60
  • “For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations.” Malachi 1:11
  • “All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name.” Psalm 86:9
  • “For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.” Isaiah 61:11
  • "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" Psalm 46:10
  • "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:3, 4
  • "You are worthy. . .; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God." Revelation 5:9, 10