Everclear was here in concert.

Now many of my readers will ask who is Everclear.  Well, I had to ask the same question.  The answer I got from everybody was–oh, you’ll know them once you hear them.  I heard them, and I still don’t know what they sing.  Not to be critical, I just have never heard of them.

They were a basic rock band.  They had some good tunes.  I thought it was quite enjoyable.  I like these concerts when the USO sends them over.  They are a big moral boost.

We had to laugh when there was a helicopter flyby–probably not planned by anyone else besides the pilots.  I turned to one of my friends and said; “I’ll bet they thought that was kinda cool to get a flyby.” And he turned to me and said; “the band was probably the one that were motivated the most!”  It is interesting how we take the helicopters for granted sometimes–they are pretty cool, but if you are not used to them–they are REALY cool.  (Gives you that war zone feel.)

Ok, I gotta add this story–who knows maybe they will see it.  The lead singer did say “go ahead and make jokes.”

The lead singer began to sing “Brown Eyed Girl”–actually the only song I recognized.

He dedicated it to his daughters.

He forgot the words.

Ouch!

One thing that many people take for granted, but I find it sometimes as a must is hand sanitizer.

I touch many hands throughout my day.  People with colds.  People with stomach viruses.  People with just everyday germs.  There are a limited number of latrine trailers and even more limited amounts of sinks with paper towels.

This is were hand sanitizers come into play.  Because of my job, I am always walking around.  I see more people than the average Soldier, so I keep a small bottle in my front pocket, so I always have clean hands.  Some Soldiers keep a bottle on their desk–it simply depends on their job.

I encourage you to help your Soldier out, send him/her something that they may never think of asking for–a bottle of hand sanitizer.  It works and it may keep them a little more healthy.

 Lorelle VanFossen wrote on Blog Herald, yesterday, a post titled “Exploring Social Media: It Starts With One”.

While the post is specifically about Social Networking on the computer, it also speaks to building any kind of community.

She writes:

A community doesn’t start with millions. It starts with one. If you serve the one, the one will tell one, who will tell two, who will tell six, and so on and so on. If you don’t serve the one… and each one after… bye bye, community.

I think this especially true in the church.

For years we have been talking about discipleship and evangelism and missions–but we neglect the nature of what the Early Church demonstrated and that is community.  One of the things that can be learned from Social Media is that it is all about Relationships.

She continues:

Social media is about the social as well as the community. This means that you have to service the individual’s needs for them to come together as a whole.

Building community is vital to our world.  Building community is vital to the future of the church.

One of the biggest reasons that I hear of as to why people leave the church relates to this issue right here.  Many times people “get offended” by a certain event in the church.  But, if the community had already invovled the person, would they have been offended?  We get offended when we feel as if we are the outsiders.  When we are a part of the community, we tend to support a decision whether or not we disagree. But we take into account the relationships and the trust we have built.

Building community starts with building a community with one other person.  This community with one person one day will become two, and four, and eight, and sixteen.

We talk about church growth–my degree is in Church Growth–to not build a relationship with each person is the biggest mistake that a church or chapel can make.  If we can not bring every member into this community (or at least make the honest attempt to) the the church is too big.  Because it has outgrown it’s ability to reach the needs of the people inside its own walls.

The challenge therefore is to build community–at every stage of the process.  It is possible, but it takes hard work.