Do You Have a Band of Brothers/Sisters? by John Avant
- Donna Avant
- Aug 18
- 3 min read

I am writing this on the way back from Europe. I just finished leading a group of 20 men on an adventure we called, Men of Valor. At Passion Promise Ministries we are discipling the next generation toward fulfilling the Great Commission. As a part of this mission, we took these young men to the great battlefields of Europe. As we taught them the history of warfare, we also committed ourselves to fight and win the battle in our own lives that matter the most.
The men on this trip came from all over the United States. However there was a group that came from Midtown Community Church in Knoxville, a church I had the privilege of helping to start almost a decade ago.
Very quickly, I noticed something about these young men. They exhibited a kind of friendship that is rare to see. They truly enjoyed being in each other‘s lives. They could argue and get frustrated with each other. But they also laughed through the heat, the sweat and the miles of walking.
They exhibited many of the same characteristics that the Band of Brothers from World War II displayed.
I asked some of them what made them such a close knit group. Their answer was beautiful and yet so rare that it shocked me.
They said they were so close because they had learned how to share the Gospel together. Their discipleship had taken place out on the streets of Knoxville where they shared Jesus with people they encountered.
And that’s what they did the entire trip! In fact, when we got off an overnight ferry in France, they informed me that a young man that they had been sharing the Gospel with was going to join the group. They weren’t really worried about the logistics of it or paying for it. They just wanted him to know Jesus. So in the van he went with us. Pray for Jerrick. He is not far from the Kingdom.
The American church desperately needs this kind of community!
We really should be sick of ourselves by now. Sick of all our fussing and squabbling and comfort zone seeking. We run around switching churches every few years looking for a better sermon or a better program. But that’s never been the purpose of the church in the first place, right?
We are made to be a mission force.
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” Philippians 2:14-16
For many the church has simply become a place where our lives are supposed to get better. But actually our lives don’t become better, because we miss the power of community that the church is meant to be. Power is found when Spirit-filled men and women go after the same mission!
We ended our adventure at the house of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man who laid his life down for the mission of challenging the church to actually be the church in a day which was evil. Listen to his words.
“The person who’s in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go.”
Ask the Lord to help you find people to build a Spirit-filled community to go after His mission.
Not the people who will like all your comments on social media and sit with you on Sundays, but the people who will go on mission with you. These are the band of brothers and sisters who will change everything in your life.
This is the church.
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