The Importance of Christian Community

The congregation is coming together again this fall, worshiping and sharing Christian fellowship in our city. It has been good to see many of the familiar faces in worship these past few weeks. Some have yet to return, and I wish you safe travels as you make your way back to Egypt and to our community. We look forward to seeing you again.

I am reminded this fall of how many new people have arrived in Egypt. In specific ways, new expats in our community are looking for a sense of home within their newer routines. Egypt is a very new and different culture in which to live. It is one matter to find an actual home in which to live, and many spend time looking for flats into which to settle themselves and their families.

But being at home is also a state of being. Many things make us feel at home. It relates to our familiarity with places. It relates to close proximity to close and personal friends and family. Void of these important qualities of life in a new setting, it can be challenging. Furthermore, developing a feeling of being at home takes a great deal of time and energy. Some say it takes a whole year. For a few, developing a sense of home is almost a matter of survival.

I am convinced that our congregation can assist people in the process of feeling at home in this new environment. Because of these transitional realities of our context, people of St. Andrew's need each other even more. For people of faith, worship and Christian fellowship within a local congregation kindles reassuring commonalities and hopeful consistency to life. After all, God’s promises are not contained by one country border or another. They are not confined to a certain continent. Worship and Christian fellowship sustain and nurture us. In fact, for people all together searching for a sense of home within such a setting as this, God’s promises in Christ can have an even more profound meaning for us.

So, we endeavor to strengthen our community at St. Andrew's so that not only we can be at home in it, but others can we welcomed and sustained within it as well. Join us. All are welcome.