Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at the importance of community especially during this pandemic when so many of us have lost a sense of community and relationship.

    When we look at our lawns of our houses, it is easy to take for granted what it takes for grass to grow and cover a large yard. If there's one thing I have earned about grass is that it never grows when it is alone. Grass never grows when there is no other grass around it. If somehow a lone grass seed sprouts open and becomes it's own blade of grass, it'll eventually dry out and die off.

    This is because the nature of grass is that the root system of each individual blade of grass needs to be connected and intertwined with other grass around it. They feed one another. One blade of grass feeds into another blade and into another blade. This how grass grows and flourishes. As a patch of grass grows thicker and healthier, it will eventually grow and fill in the bare ground around it.

    If you want to know why it is so important for a Christian to be an active part of a church community, simply look at how grass grows. Just as grass cannot grow and flourish on its own, we cannot do it alone. If our community is dry around us, pretty soon we will be dry too. But if we are growing together, feeding each other, encouraging each other, all of us connected in a network of relationships - that is when we're healthiest, that is when we're strongest. We hold each other up. If one is failing, the others around them pour into them what they have so that they can be healthy again. Eventually, the healthier we are, the more we fill in the spiritually dry and bare ground around us.

    Seven months into the pandemic, this kind of church community is what we ought to be striving for whether we gather in-person or online. Let us not neglect to meet together in whatever form that takes, and let us always seek to encourage one another and stir up one another to love and good deeds.

    在這新冠大流行期間，當我們很多人都失去了群體生活和人際關係的維繫時，我在過去幾周特別為此談論到群體的重要性。

　當我們觀看房子的草地時，很容易地認為草地上長滿了草是理所當然的。如果我說我從草地中領悟了一件事，那就是它永遠不會單獨地生長；當周圍沒有其他草時，草是永遠不會生長的。如果有某一單獨的草種發芽並生長，它最終還是枯乾至死。

  這是因為草的本質是：每一根草的根部都需要與其他周圍的草纏結在一起。它們互相餵養，一根餵養另一根，這就是草生長和繁茂的方式。當草地上的草漸漸長得健康茂密時，最終整片土地就會被它們遮蓋。

  如果你想知道為什麼基督徒成為教會群體中的積極分子是如此重要，只需看一下草是如何成長的；就如草無法獨自生長和繁衍一樣，我們也不能單靠自己。如果我們的群體是枯竭，不久我們也會乾枯。但是如果我們一起成長，互相餵養，互相鼓勵，我們之間的關係網絡就會建立起來，當網絡建立時就是我們最健康﹑最強壯的時候。我們相互支持，當一個人跌倒時，周圍的人就扶他一把，把擁有的傾倒出來，讓他再次健康起來。最終當我們越健康時，我們就越能讓屬靈的乾地填得滿滿。

  新冠大流行已經有七個月的時間，無論是實體還是在線聚會，我們都應該為這樣的教會群體而努力。讓我們不要忽視任何形式的聚會機會，願意我們都以愛以善彼此激勵

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