Episode Details

Some advice is easy to understand and nearly impossible to follow. In Part 11 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff opens with a story from a jog through a British Columbia park, where the local bear-safety rule was "hump, lump, black, attack," and uses it to raise an uncomfortable question: what about the biblical advice we understand perfectly well but are unlikely to take?

The advice in question today is this: you were made for family and community. American folklore celebrates the rugged individualist, but the Bible never does. From Genesis 12 onward, Scripture tells the story of one family, and God consistently uses family and community language because he himself is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, never alone and always in perfect relationship. Mike explains why a privatized, "just me and Jesus" faith isn't purer, it's truncated. He points to the "one another" commands of the New Testament and 1 Peter 2:17, then brings in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's warning from Life Together that one of the greatest enemies of Christian community is our dream of it. Real people annoy, disappoint, and hurt us, which is why sitting anonymously in a row at church feels safer than being known in a circle. But as Mike puts it, safe and alive are not the same thing.

This is Part 11 of our multi-week series on being made for something greater than yourself, focused on the second half of the Greatest Commandment: loving the people God puts around you.

📖 Scripture focus: Genesis 12; Matthew 22:37-39; 1 Peter 2:17
🎙️ Speaker: Pastor Mike Woodruff
📅 "Made for Something" Devotional Series, a multi-week journey into purpose and calling

In this devotional you'll learn:

• Why the Bible never celebrates the "rugged individualist" and always tells a story of family and community
• How the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) shows that God himself is relational
• Why a "just me and Jesus" faith is truncated rather than purer
• What the New Testament's repeated "one another" commands ask of us
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer's warning that our dream of community can be its greatest enemy
• Why messy, inconvenient church community is still the one God has given you

👉 New to our devotionals? We post short, daily devotionals designed to help you start your day grounded in Scripture. "Made for Something" is a multi-week series exploring purpose, calling, and what it means to be made on purpose, for a purpose.

Frequently asked:
Do Christians really need to be part of a church community? According to this teaching, yes. Scripture frames our purpose in relationships, first with God and then with people, and a faith lived entirely in private is incomplete. As Mike says, nobody becomes like Christ alone.
What does Bonhoeffer mean that the "dream" of community is its greatest enemy? In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that people arrive at church with an idealized picture of easy, encouraging fellowship. When real, imperfect people disappoint them, they become resentful and drift away. Letting that dream die allows real community to begin.
What are the "one another" commands in the Bible? They are the New Testament instructions to love one another, encourage one another, bear with one another, and bear one another's burdens, all of which assume we are living life together rather than alone.

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