Is Attending Church Enough?

What truly keeps us rooted in our faith community? The answer might be simpler and more profound than we expect: relationships. Drawing from the powerful account in Mark chapter 2, where four determined friends tear through a roof to lower their paralyzed companion to Jesus, we are invited to examine where we stand in our own relational depth. The story presents us with four distinct levels of connection: the crowd, the connected, the community, and something even deeper called communitas. Most of us are comfortable in the crowd, showing up for the big moments, much like fans filling a stadium for a concert only to scatter when the event ends. But genuine, lasting faith is not built in crowds. It is built in the kind of relationships where people know not just our names, but our burdens, our fears, and our midnight prayers. The paralyzed man in Mark 2 could not carry himself, and neither can we when life brings us to our lowest points. The question this message leaves us with is both simple and searching: do we have our four? Do we have people who would tear off a roof for us, and for whom we would do the same?