Transformational community

Transformational Community

Aug 28, 2025
Spread the love

by Maddy Svoboda

The Year 1996

The year is 1996. Atlanta hosted the Olympic Games, and the Nintendo 64 was unleashed upon the world, bringing great joy as you lay proximity mines in the facility level on Goldeneye 64. The Spice Girls released ‘Wannabe’ and Tickle Me Elmo was created. It was also the year that I started high school at Queechy High School (Queechy is quality with a capital K…a real-life quote from someone who went to Queechy) and I connected with a group of people who would drastically alter the direction of my life. 

The group of people that I started hanging out with were a group of Christians who took their faith seriously. As someone who had given Jesus absolutely no consideration in my life, I remember simultaneously being impressed that these guys enjoyed basketball and heavy metal music and intrigued that they seemed to have something that I didn’t have that I couldn’t put my finger on. They were kind, patient and genuinely seemed to care about me, despite the constant tirades of profanities that exited my mouth. 

These guys stuck with me right up to the moment that I was baptised five years later. I remember talking to one the night I was baptised, and he shared with me that this group of friends had met together every week for one hour, simply to pray for me and that I may come to know Jesus. For five years, they prayed even though there were many times it looked as if my life was on a progressively more destructive trajectory. I am, literally, eternally grateful for their heart and commitment to Jesus and myself. 

1996 Transformational Community

A Safe Space

Now absolutely, this story speaks to the power of prayer, but what strikes me profoundly is the depth of community that I unwittingly stepped into back in 1996. I entered a group of friends who lived out their faith in Jesus publicly and privately, who lived life alongside me in my best and worst moments and refused to walk away. They gave me a safe space to ask questions if I had them, express doubts when I had them, to share from my depths in deep and meaningful conversation moments and to be myself, even though I’m sure they didn’t agree with the choices I was making. 

Right from day one, my life was marinated in the beauty of deep, transformational community. As my faith has progressed, being a part of this level of sharing and caring has been part of forming me into the person I am today. As someone from a broken home and family, I longed for a level of acceptance and welcome and when followers of Jesus are at their best, this is a natural overflow of our connection to the true vine.  

‘One Another’ Commands

In the eyewitness account of Jesus life written by John, he records Jesus saying:

I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. John 13:34-35 (emphasis mine).

As we are in community with the Trinitarian God and receiving his love, the overflow should be that same love shown to us, shown by us for each other. 

This is why there are so many ‘one another’ commands; this is what the life of love looks like on the ground. Outdo one another with honour. Forgive one another. Confess your sins to one another. Encourage one another. Bear one another’s burdens. Bear with one another. Admonish or reprimand one another. Pray for one another. This is what the life of Jesus looks like lived out. 

If we are wanting to develop and cultivate intergenerational churches, we must become places and people who love like this. I truly believe this type of community transforms lives, as it did in 2001 when I entered the waters of baptism, responding to the love of Jesus that was shown to me through my friends.

Maddy Svoboda

Rev. Maddy Svoboda is the pastor at Summerhill Baptist, and represents the Greater Launceston churches on the Tasmanian Baptists Mission Leadership Team.

Read more reCharge articles!