Most Christians who struggle with community are asking horizontal relationships to do vertical work. They are hungry for what only God can give and have been asking a spouse, a friend, or a small group to be their ultimate source. And when the horizontal cannot deliver, the relationships collapse under a weight they were never meant to carry.
This week we press into authentic community as the overflow of a healthy vertical, not a substitute for it. Because when your relationship with God is right, the horizontal overflows into shared life, open homes, thick skin toward offense, and a love the world will recognize as the mark of Christ.