Community Minded started as an observation. As Nathan, the founder, returned to Georgia from South Carolina, where he was living and writing a book, he went and visited many churches in the Atlanta area in search of a new church home. What occurred next was disheartening.

He was struck by the absence of warmth, lack of community, and scarcity of invitation to strangers and believers to get closer. There were plenty of polite gestures and spirited welcomes by the teams at the doors, but he could feel the chill of cliques and distance of apathy toward visitors and outsiders, those who were not on staff or already established in the obvious closed circles of believers.

He was determined to call God’s people to action and gather other followers of Christ who felt and saw the same trends in their church gatherings.

Fresh from a move out of Downtown Presbyterian, an effusively loving church in Greenville, SC, Nathan was longing for more of the same when he got back to his hometown.

“When I was attending Downtown Pres, I was consistently showered with attention, invitation, warmth, and interest. On my first visit, one of the elders invited me to grab lunch with him. It was so refreshing to see God’s heart lived out through this man. I’ll never forget him. Gary really showed me how a man of God acts towards people. Gary’s kindness was multiplied by other members of the church during nearly every Sunday service. I had 3 family group leaders invite me to their homes to join them for Bible study, two of them on the same day! They were playfully fighting over which group I would join. I felt so cherished in those moments! And this was just in the first two weeks of me coming!

There were no gates, walls, or red tape to push past to get access to God’s people and the groups were pleasantly diverse. Married couples with children, empty nesters, widows, young adults, retirees, you name it. They were all living in community together. It was the kingdom realized. It looked and felt like an actual family.”

This is what we want all church gatherings to feel and look like, an actual family. The church in Atlanta has a long way to go to unite with each other in fellowship and collaboration, but we are hopeful and excited about the change that is coming. We already see it on the way and we pray God’s people to be united every day! Community Minded exists to help believers unite with other in relationship. That may look like attending one of our community gatherings. For others it will be through one-on-one training or having Nathan speak at your next event. Whatever you are looking for, you will find community here!