We Are Rock Point | Week 3 | Bill Bush | Full Service

The big idea

Being a follower of Christ means growing in biblical community — real relationship in the context of a shared mission, not just sitting in rows every week.

Faith is personal, but it was never meant to be private — God's plan for growing us is largely each other. Real biblical community means being truly known, being accepted with gentleness and humility, being supported without becoming codependent, and being developed together into fully engaged followers of Christ.

Point 1 of 7

Pastor Bill uses the illustration of geese flying in a V formation — they travel together with a purpose, rotate leadership, encourage one another by honking, and even break off to care for an injured goose until it can fly again or dies. He says this pictures what real community should be: connected people moving toward something together, not just a social gathering.

Point 2 of 7

He challenges the lie that church is a cafeteria where you show up for what you like and otherwise keep faith to yourself. He says most of the New Testament teaches we need one another, and God's plan A for growing us into Christlikeness is people, not isolation.

Point 3 of 7

Working through Galatians 6:1, Pastor Bill explains that you can't help someone who is overcome by sin unless they are actually known at a deep level, not just known by name. He says this requires being honest and real about where you actually are with Jesus, rather than performing for the group, and warns that a law-oriented, performance-based heart keeps people from letting themselves be known.

Point 4 of 7

He warns against pride and self-righteousness that make people either recoil from someone's struggle or come at them harshly, and says real acceptance means meeting people where they are without affirming what is destroying them — like Jesus with the woman caught in adultery, who did not throw a stone but also told her to go and sin no more.

Point 5 of 7

Pastor Bill unpacks the Greek word for burden as a heavy boulder and contrasts it with the word for one's own work or conduct, pictured as a soldier's backpack. He shares stories from his own marriage counseling of people who wanted him to throw their rock at their spouse rather than pick up their own pack, and says real support lifts the boulder but insists a person carry their own responsibility.

Point 6 of 7

He ties this back to the church's language of knowing, growing, and going, describing groups that pushed each other to actually be in the Word, to serve together, to get baptized, and to share their faith rather than just discussing the Bible and complaining about the world.

Point 7 of 7

Using a stuffed Oreo as an illustration, he says most people want to be accepted and supported without being known or developed — accepted without being known, supported without being pushed to grow. He says real community includes the crunchy, harder parts too, and that being known and accepted makes us vulnerable, while being supported and developed makes us unstoppable, but you cannot get to unstoppable without being vulnerable first.

Take it into your week

Pastor Bill's charge is to actually check whether you have this level of connectedness with a few people, and if not, to take the uncomfortable step of finding it.