What is God’s desire for how His children should live together in a broken world?
We look forward to the day when God will restore all things and know that we will have a rich community on the new earth. However, what is God’s plan for how we should live today? I believe the answer is community!
Developing community is one of a team’s goals as they minister to unreached people groups. Obstacles to community development such as fighting within the country, government suppression, violence, and distrust of foreigners often trap people in poverty.
As an outsider, it is easy to see the material poverty in a village and come to the conclusion that they need more things: running water, bathrooms, better vehicles, and newer buildings. However, a definition of poverty put forth in the book, When Helping Hurts, addresses poverty as broken relationships. The authors state that God created “four foundational relationships for each person: a relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation” (p. 54). Poverty occurs when any of these relationships are broken.
When poverty is assessed in terms of broken relationships, the goals of community development turn from bringing in physical things to seeing people’s relationships healed. Every person is created to have a relationship with God. This foundational relationship affects all other relationships. As one’s relationship with God is healed, other relationships can be restored. Restored relationships may look like a restored marriage, neighbors helping each other instead of fighting, and stewarding the resources God gave to the community.
Jesus is the answer for every problem in the world. The world is full of violence, turmoil, and fighting, but this is not God’s will. Colossians 1 paints the picture of Jesus as the One who created all things, the One who holds all things together, and the One who will reconcile all things by the blood of the cross.
God’s heart is that peace would come to the earth, that people would live with whole relationships, and that His people would join in community.
— RW, Community development facilitator on the Isala team
All-Nations teams typically include a community development facilitator, who may focus on agriculture, business, savings groups, or literacy, while promoting reconciliation through the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Sometimes they precede translators into a people group, since many groups value community development but may initially lack interest in the Scriptures.