NBS: Learning Together to Serve Together

As Deb notes, the Sermon on the Mount was to a group of people not an individual. In NBS, we continued the discussion on the collaborative effort required for following Jesus and the uniqueness of the selfless response, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this,that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

By: Deborah Nava

Being a part-time working mother of two elementary-aged children while battling a chronic illness has challenged me in this season of unknowns. I took advantage of the opportunity to attend Neighborhood Bible Study each week through Zoom, a necessary medium of this era. Over the last 10 weeks, we tackled the idea of what it means to be part of the church body and what responsibility we have as believers to enact what it was that Jesus wanted.

During one particular session as we worked through the book Resident Aliens, I was struck by this quote: “The sermon is not primarily addressed to individuals, because it’s precisely as individuals that we are most apt to fail as Christians.”

We, in the West, are hard of hearing when it comes to recognizing the collective quality of how Jesus addressed these crowds. We prefer to hear him speaking to us as individuals, and in the process, we miss some of the power behind what he was saying. If we hear him speaking to individuals, there is no need to depend on anyone else. There is little risk involved. The stakes are low. But when you introduce the complexity of doing the work of God with others, the commitment to relationships can make it suddenly feel too risky. We are then called upon to engage with others using the words he gave us. We are then required to allow the Kingdom to come alive amongst us through telling the truth, sacrificial giving, acts of service, prayer. That is something no one individual can claim to do alone.

Yet, when we consider the task at hand, we have to recognize that on our own, we do not function at our best. We need one another to carry out this mission he has for us. To represent him well, we need the gifts of all those in the body of Christ so that we can offer the world the best image of who he is.

NBS has been online for the past year due to COVID-19. Half-way through the Spring semester, we were able to provide an in-person option through a hybrid program. This allowed participants to choose how they wanted to attend while allowing us to continue to serve mothers with children, like Deb, and others around the country.

I saw this demonstrated through how the class was taught. Our class had 3 different teachers, and each teacher taught in their style, bringing their gifts to every session as a way to serve our group. Be it through honest candor, careful analysis of the text, or practical application, each teacher contributed something valuable to the conversation that one person could not have done on their own, not to mention the service of the administrators and organizers who lent their skills so the event could happen seamlessly.

Every week I was able to tune in, to see my face in this rectangular quilt of other faces from around Nashville and other parts of the country, to recognize how important it is that we find ourselves belonging to a family of faith that desires to act and live in a way that would make Jesus proud. This weekly engagement provided a timely respite and the biblical insight I needed to tackle my daily challenges, while keeping in mind the benefit we have in doing this life together.

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Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Philippians 2:2