![\"Parabole](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/images_news-2019_Parabole_Productions1200.jpg\" "\\"Parabole")
<\/a>After beginning the day with a hearty welcome and prayer, the state of the Church was addressed through a short theatre production. Helmed by Parabole Productions, four actors took centre stage to invite the audience to assess how seemingly innocuous conversations can prove detrimental to self as well as the listener.<\/p>\nThe scene was set with two couples engaged in gossip fodder. Energetically, they recounted the affairs of a pastor and the waywardness of a congregant\u2019s teenager. Intermittently, each actor broke the fourth wall to address the audience with their own shortcomings and shame of being unable to deal with it. Their issues ranged from work-related stress, pornography addiction, to parental failures. A light was shone how it\u2019s easier to talk about other people\u2019s problems rather than our own. Met with enthusiasm from the audience, it was palpable that the skit rang true.<\/p>\n
Using Genesis 2:8, \u2018It is not good for man to be alone\u2026\u2019 Davis proffered that when our human-shaped void is not filled, we live in isolation. Relational maladies infect us and we can suffer from loss of perspective. She further explained that we can easily forget that the enemy\u2019s successful strategy is to isolate us so that he can destroy us. The panacea posed by Davis was ‘community’. \u201cCommunity\u201d, she said \u201ccan bring fullness of heart.\u201d Yet, only effective if implemented Jesus\u2019 way: no longer loving others as we love ourselves, since some people don\u2019t even love themselves; rather to love each other as Christ loved us as stated in John 13:34<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>The programme progressed swiftly with soothing music from L.E.G.A.C.Y Youth Choir before Pastor Rebecca Davis presented her sermon. Although she had travelled from California, Davis\u2019s jet lag did not show since her entire presentation was laced with pert humour and scriptural depth. She began with statistics on the correlation between internet use and loneliness. As a side note, she mentioned that 17 million Brits do not have a close friend. A figure which has risen by 10% since 2013\/2014. The contrast was much more profound when America was brought into the fray.<\/p>\n<\/a>Davis\u2019s rationale was that this love, in essence, creates community: for it moves beyond self-love as the exemplary standard, but points to Jesus\u2019 self-sacrificial love. Through fully living out this command, it would usher in a messianic community equipped to change the world and be the greatest testament of Christian apologetics. Using Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook\u2019s founder, as an example, Davis stated that Zuckerberg understood that people longed for community; they wanted to connect, to see other people and to be seen. It was one of the reasons why the social media site became so popular. However, when ranked by young adults, the Church, across the denomination spectrum, scored highly in every other section but community spirit.<\/p>\n