When a community is functioning well, it feels safe, supportive and encouraging. In short, it becomes a place that you want to be at as much as possible.

Sadly,  life isn’t always like this. People can feel isolated, lonely and left out even within a crowd. People can feel unsupported and unwanted. People can feel so hurt by others that they stay away from close relationships for fear of being hurt again.

Our western culture is so individualistic and yet people cry out for companionship. We have ‘building community’ as part of our vision as a church. Whatever we do, we want it to be a loving community that functions well, and that people feel welcomed in and special.

Last night at our youth group we thought about the power of encouragement and as we began practising it, it was noticeable. How different the young people and leaders felt. Saying lovely and positive things to others may feel like a small risk but it has great rewards.

This morning at our toddler group, parents and carers of different ages and stages of life took time to support and encourage one another. Caring for little ones can be joyful and also very challenging. It makes a difference when people understand and seek to support others. One person this morning said that the group felt like a taste of heaven.  This is the kind of feedback we like receiving!

We all have the opportunity to make any group and any community a little bit more like heaven through the way that we engage. By taking the brave step of talking to someone that we don’t know, we can help a person feel included. It takes courage to be vulnerable but when we are, people feel privileged that we trust them with our vulnerability. It takes effort to regularly look to the needs of others, and seek to be the one that brings light and love and encouragement to the people and the space that we are in. But when we make the effort over time we will see change.

If you are reading this as a Christian, you will know that a vital part of your faith is to love your neighbour as yourself. This love in itself helps create good community life. But if we are not caring for our own personal needs and spiritual well-being, then we can easily find ourselves over busy, depleted, anxious and stressed. But when we begin by focusing on our relationship with God, we receive the love, joy and peace that we need to share with all around us. By focusing on receiving all that we need, before we give out, we will find that we never run out of love and compassion for others and we really can be community builders.

Rev Richard Heard, Vicar of St Francis Church