Key points
- 1
1We are meant to be in community, not to go on the journey of faith alone — standing together defeats the enemy, but standing alone means we lose.
“we are not rock point when we just sit in rows. We are rock point when we sit in circles”
“if us uniting in community destroys the enemy, what happens if we try to stand alone? We lose”
“Biblical community is not an optional thing that if my life gets less scheduled, less busy, I can do. It is a life and death critical matter”
- 2
2False community — social media, parasocial connections, and hyper-individualism — drains our emotional energy while failing to deliver what real, physically present community provides.
- 3
3The first element of biblical community is being known — we must be willing to be real and honest about where we are, even though we fear rejection.
A story from life
Pastor Bill pretends to be a Major League Baseball player at a batting cage to avoid wearing a helmet, leading to an escalating deception with a young fan and his mother
- 4
4The second element is acceptance — we need a circle of people who will not run from our struggles but will receive us humbly and gently where we are.
- 5
5The third element is support — sharing each other's burdens through a physically present community that can truly help us spiritually, emotionally, and practically.
A story from life
Pastor Bill's youngest daughter, a self-described non-people-person, attends a pool party she dreads because she knows she needs community
Illustration
Video testimony of a married couple — the wife a self-described hermit — who joined a small group and found it felt like home
- 6
6The fourth element is development — real community challenges us to grow and pushes us further into the mission of knowing, growing, and going.
“if you think you're too important to help someone, you're only fooling yourself. You're not that important”
- 7
7We need the whole cookie: being known and accepted makes us vulnerable, and being supported and developed makes us unstoppable — we cannot pick and choose only the parts we like.
“you are left out in the open exposed to the attacks of the enemy. And we need one another”
“When I am allow myself to be truly known and to know, and truly be accepted and to accept, that makes us vulnerable. Open to what God wants to do. And when I become vulnerable, I then allow myself to be supported and developed. That makes us unstoppable”
A story from life
Pastor Mark Collins visits the World Wildlife Zoo and watches a monkey lick the cream from Oreos and throw the cookie parts at the trainer
Application
Pastor Bill's challenge is direct: stop treating community as optional and start treating it as mission-critical. If you are not yet in a circle — a small group where people truly know you — take a groups card, fill it out, and get plugged in this week. If you are already in a group, use these four questions as a honest litmus test with your people: Are we truly known by one another? Do we offer genuine acceptance, not just surface-level niceness? Are we sharing real burdens and showing up physically for each other? And are we lovingly developing one another toward the mission — to know Jesus, grow together, and go into the world? The whole cookie is what God intends, and it is what makes us — individually and as Rock Point — unstoppable.
