Let me start with a confession. I like being independent. I really do. I like making decisions without asking for help. I like solving my own problems. And at times I see that tendency creeping into how I do ministry. I mean, I'm the pastor --- I should be able to do all these things on my own. It doesn't impose upon other people, it's just easier for me to do it by myself, me and God, man, we got this covered.

Sounds holy, doesn't it? Problem is… it's not biblical. It's not beneficial. And it's not sustainable.

Years ago, when communism fell in Romania, the world was introduced to something heartbreaking. There were thousands of children living in overcrowded orphanages. Their basic needs were technically being met — food, clothing, shelter — but they were rarely held. Rarely touched. Rarely spoken to. There was no consistent love. No family. And doctors began to notice something; they called it “failure to thrive.”

These children were alive… but they weren’t developing. Months would go by, even years, and they still functioned like infants. Not because they lacked nutrition, but because they lacked connection. They didn’t just need food. They needed family.

And in a very real way, the same thing can happen spiritually. A person can come to faith in Jesus… be genuinely saved… and yet, if they try to live the Christian life in isolation, disconnected from other believers, they begin to stall out. They don’t grow. They don’t mature. They struggle to persevere. They begin to experience a kind of spiritual “failure to thrive.”

So today, as we continue our CONNECT series, we're going to see that connecting to Christ is first—but connecting to each other is how we grow up.