Created For Community | Micah Hegerle

"There are no neutral communities. The people we are around the most affect how we act, think and perceive the world around us." — Micah Hegerle

Micah Hegerle serves as the Director of Content and Graphic Design at The Tree Church. Before landing in Lancaster, he lived in two much larger cities, Minneapolis and Denver. He grew up in Minnesota and studied at the University of Minnesota, and to this day he roots for the Gophers even though Ohio State tends to win.

When Micah first drove into Lancaster to interview for the role, he had some reservations. Two things changed his mind. The first was the community itself. When he visited a service and met people from the church, he could see they genuinely sought God's presence together and loved each other well. The second, a little more lighthearted, was that Lancaster has a White Castle, something Micah admits he was happy to discover.

What started as a job interview turned into something much bigger. Micah describes his time at The Tree as truly transformational. When he first arrived, he was looking for a community that encouraged honesty and did not shy away from the real challenges of following Jesus.

The word community can mean a lot of different things. It might be what happens on Sunday mornings. It might be the neighborhood someone lives in, a group of friends who share the same interests, or family. It can even be an online space built around social media or gaming.

For many people, the first place that comes to mind is work or school.

Micah shared a few numbers to put this in perspective. The average person spends about 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime. Add in 16,000 hours in K through 12 classrooms, 2,500 hours in a four year undergraduate program, and 1,300 hours in graduate school, and the total time spent in a classroom alone adds up to about 20,000 hours.

That is a lot of time surrounded by the same people, for better or worse. Some people love their workplace and feel encouraged by the people around them. Others dread every shift because the environment feels negative and draining. The same is true at school. Some walk in every day knowing a group of friends is waiting for them. Others feel surrounded by people yet completely alone.

Micah's point was direct. Community shapes who we become, and no community is neutral. He pointed to research showing that people are more likely to laugh when they are with others than when they are alone, and that yawning has been shown to be contagious. Small evidence, but it points to a bigger truth: the people around us shape our behavior, our thinking, and how we see the world.

He referenced a well known line from author Jim Rohn, who said that a person is the average of the five people they spend the most time with.

Micah illustrated this with a story from his own high school years. He had several friend groups, including sports, band and choir, and a short lived attempt at theater. He also had a group of friends known for getting into trouble, even if they usually did not get caught.

One night not long after getting his license, Micah and that group of friends decided to spray paint some squirt guns black and point them at other cars on the way to a movie. At a stoplight, a sheriff pulled in behind them. When the light turned green, police from every side street turned on their lights. The group was approached at gunpoint, handcuffed, and their parents had to come pick them up.

Micah is honest that this was not something he would have done outside the influence of that particular group. It was a clear picture of how much the people around us shape our choices.

Micah connected this idea back to the beginning of Scripture. When God created people, he designed them to operate at their best in community, with deep and meaningful connections. Scripture says people were made in God's likeness, and God himself exists in community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In Genesis 1 and 2, everything God created was called good, and after he created the first human being, it was called very good. Genesis 2 gives a picture of God's original design, describing the garden he made and the man he placed inside it.

Genesis 2:15 through 18 describes God placing the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it, giving him freedom to eat from any tree except one. This meant God gave humanity free will, the ability to choose relationship and obedience.

Then comes the first time Scripture says something is not good. God says, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him." Micah pointed out that this happens before sin, before shame, before pain, and before death ever entered the picture. Even then, God looked at humanity and said something was missing.

People were designed for relationship from the very start, and specifically for a companion who fit them well.

Micah asked a simple question. If that is God's design, what kind of community did he actually have in mind? People today are surrounded by others constantly, at work, at school, and scrolling through hundreds of lives on social media. Yet loneliness remains one of the defining struggles of the culture. Simply being around people clearly is not enough.

Acts 2 gives a picture of what happens when ordinary people live out God's design for community. After Jesus' life, death, resurrection and ascension, he promised the Holy Spirit. That promise was fulfilled at Pentecost, and the first church was born.

Acts 2:42 through 47 describes believers devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, shared meals, and prayer. A deep sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many signs and wonders. Believers shared everything they had, sold property to help those in need, and worshiped together with great joy.
Micah highlighted three ways this early community functioned.

Looking closely at Acts 2:42, Micah noted what is missing from the description. It does not say believers were together because they shared the same personalities, the same music, the same politics, or the same hobbies. They were not united by preferences. They were united by a person, Jesus.

"They weren't united by preferences -- they were united by a Person -- Jesus."

Every community gathers around something. Sports teams gather around winning. Businesses gather around sales. Friend groups often gather around shared interests. Biblical community gathers around Jesus. People do not come together because they are alike. They come together because they have been rescued by the same Savior.

Acts 2:43 says a deep sense of awe came over the believers, and the apostles performed miraculous signs and wonders. Micah explained that the original Greek behind "awe" carried the sense of fear, a deep reverence for God. The community was being transformed together.

He connected this to Hebrews 10:24, which encourages believers to think of ways to motivate one another toward love and good works. Growth was never meant to be a solo project. God designed people to help shape one another into who he is calling them to become.

Micah compared this to training for something difficult. It is always easier with someone beside you, challenging you, encouraging you, and reminding you why you started. Faith works the same way.

As the early believers grew closer to Jesus, they began to care more about serving others than protecting their own comfort. Acts 2:44 and 45 describe believers sharing everything they had and selling property to help those in need.

Jesus himself said he came not to be served, but to serve. As the early church grew to look more like him, they modeled that same posture. Micah noted that more of this mindset would genuinely change the self focused patterns common in culture today, a willingness to serve when it is inconvenient and to put others' interests ahead of our own.

Micah pointed to Acts 2:46, which describes believers worshiping together at the Temple each day while also meeting in homes. For some people, Sunday mornings are the only experience they have of church, and that is a good and valuable thing. But large gatherings can only go so deep relationally. This is part of why smaller groups, called Connect Groups at The Tree, matter so much.

Jesus modeled this same layered approach. He preached to large crowds. He spent most of his time with his twelve disciples. He had three close friends he shared his deepest moments with. And he was completely honest and vulnerable with the Father.

Micah referenced Mark 14:32 through 34, where Jesus takes Peter, James and John to the olive grove at Gethsemane and tells them his soul is crushed with grief to the point of death, asking them to stay and keep watch with him.

Micah acknowledged that some might assume deep community comes easily to him since he works at a church surrounded by people who love Jesus. In many ways that is true. But he admitted there is also a temptation in ministry to hide what is really going on internally.
Before coming to The Tree, Micah worked as a youth pastor at a large church in Minnesota, a place that meant everything to him. It was where he had come back to faith, where he first felt called to ministry, and where he eventually joined the staff after years of volunteering and interning.

Over time, Micah developed an unhealthy relationship with alcohol that grew into an addiction. He did not fit the picture he had in his mind of what an addiction looked like, so he told himself it was not a real problem. He managed it quietly, presenting a version of himself that looked fine on the outside while pushing down what was happening underneath.

On August 8, 2022, sitting alone in his apartment, the weight of the years of numbing his emotions became overwhelming. He knew he could not continue.

"I knew I either needed to get help or this addiction would kill me."

That night he called a recovery center and flew to Los Angeles the next morning to begin a thirty day program. He resigned from his role at the church with no idea what would come next. Sitting outside the recovery center one morning, with no job and no plan, he heard God say, "I've got you." It was a peace he had not felt in a long time.

Micah learned that real healing required brutal honesty about what was happening inside, and that this kind of honesty only happens in community. He needed people who could see the darkest parts of his life so God could begin to heal them. More than that, he needed to let God into those same places.

Micah tied his story back to Genesis 3. After Adam and Eve ate from the tree God had told them not to touch, sin entered the world, and their first response was to hide from God in shame. God called out to them anyway. He already knew where they were and what they had done, but he called out as a reminder that he still wanted relationship with them and wanted them to come out of hiding.

Micah closed with a few honest questions for anyone listening.

What are you hiding? It might be an addiction, a habitual sin, a struggling marriage, or a difficult financial season.

Where can you step deeper into community? That might look like joining a Connect Group, finding two or three people to be honest with, or seeking counseling.

Who in your community can you encourage or lean into right now?

The Tree Church meets in two locations, Lancaster and Logan, Ohio, with Sunday services at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at both campuses. If you are searching for a church in Lancaster or a church in Logan, we would love for you to join us this Sunday.

Lancaster Campus: 721 N Memorial Dr, Lancaster, OH 43130, USA 
Logan Campus: 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138, USA