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Relational Partnership - The Richard's

RichardsNEW

When Lauren and I first came to The Village two and a half years ago, we had just gotten married and moved across the country. We were excited to start our new life together, but we were sadly leaving a lot behind. Lauren was moving away from her family and we were both leaving churches where we had a lot of strong relationships. We had to start all over building godly friendships.

The first few months here were really hard for us. We were attending The Village but still really struggling to connect. It was especially difficult since back then there were only a few other young married couples without kids in the church. But then we got involved in a community group and determined to make it a priority to attend every week. As we began to meet and grow alongside our fellow community group members, we saw real, meaningful relationships begin to form.

Our friendships began to move beyond the group meetings as we began to really do life together. We became really close with the Sellars, our community group leaders, and Lauren even helped Kristin with watching their kids when she went on bed rest with Hudson (we learned a lot about parenting!). As we began to reach out and get involved in more areas of the church, such as children’s ministry and Apprentice, we began to build even more friendships.

Today, we consider many of our church friends the closest friends we have and some of the most influential people in our lives. Looking back on our first few years at The Village, it is now so evident that God was primarily teaching and blessing us through the people of The Village Church. These friendships are what kept us rooted in the church and fueled our spiritual growth. They are also one of the main reasons why Rachel was born a month ago. God gave us an opportunity to witness so many examples of godly parenting around us and it made us eager to begin the journey of parenthood alongside our friends.

It is these relationships that make us feel so at home at The Village. This is something that we humbly believe this church does really well and it is one of the biggest reasons why The Village is such a special place. The Village Church is not just a community of believers but a family of believers.

And isn’t this what the greatest example of the church should be? As Jesus tell his disciples in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The New Testament is filled with these “one anothers.” Our lives as Christians are meant to be lived out in a loving, unified body of believers. We are all partners together in the gospel. When we really grow in our affections for one another and begin to do life together, we help “all people [to] know” that relational partnership together for Jesus is the tangible reflection of the love of God.

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