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Not long ago I was meeting with a mentor of mine, who has functioned as a spiritual director to me at various times the last few years. In my mind, our meeting was not about spiritual formation but to catch up on some other stuff going on, but all of the sudden he asked me a question, seemingly out of nowhere. He asked, "so what is God doing in your life?" An innocent and fine question to ask, but not one I had come prepared to answer. I immediately told him what I had been studying in my devotions and how it had been going. He, being the type that he is, saw through my religiosity and complimented me upon my extraordinary accomplishments, but then asked again what God was doing, NOT what I was doing. He then politely excused himself to get some more tea while I was allowed to humbly recover for a bit. When he returned from getting tea, I began to tell him that I was not really feeling that God was doing something, but told him instead about a good friend who was in the process of moving away and how this was affecting me. As we continued to talk, I told him that part of what made it so hard on me about my friend moving away is that he is one of the only people that I am close to in my church. Even being a pastor on a decent sized staff, I don't have many I consider close friends. I then began to express some frustration about the state of the church (not mine only, but many) and how there seems to be a lack of community. Finally, he wisely stated that perhaps what God is doing is using this experience of my good friend Bill moving away to allow me to more deeply experience this need for what we often call "community" in the church. So, after this meeting, I have been ruminating on this idea for a few weeks and thought I would post it here and open it up a bit for thoughts. Here are a few of my thoughts in somewhat of a stream ofconsciousness:
This blog is only the beginning, and I intentionally am leaving it hanging, hoping more will join in on the conversation… Please do. Phil |
Comments
I have been dwelling on this idea of community as well. Having just finished some short term missions work where I was literally living with the people that I was serving with, the need for community in my case was the need for literal proximity to other believers. The ability to be near them and to have them influence my daily life. Waking up next to believers and then serving all day with belivers, eatting every meal with believers, and then falling asleep surrounded by bunks of believers. It is easier to do that when you are on a missions trip because there is a team mentality and a team focus, and a goal in mind: to serve Christ. When we come back to daily living, the idea of community, that constant edification that is so useful in missions situations, is profoundly lacking for many reasons. For one, there is just so much to get wrapped up in during our daily lives. I prioritize tv over prayer. Does that seem right? Shouldn't we be trying to make life easier on ourselves when it comes to serving God? Instead of that, we do just the opposite. Everyday we fill our lives with more and more stuff that obscures God and the needs of his people. And it is not only that the material stuff gets in the way of our daily communion with God, like the noisy tv, or busy internet. More than that, having material things serverly reduces our chances to serve the poor. Imagine if we prioritized the needs of the poverty striken as we prioritize our need for a plasma screen tv. There would be no world hunger, everyone would be obese and we would have an insulin shortage. What I am trying to say is that we need to be open to serve eachother, to sacrifice for eachother, to have such deep, Christ like compassion for one another that we want to create family bonds with them, and draw them into our community. I think those who have experienced such a thing on missions trips know what I am talking about when I say community. For those who haven't been on a trip, I think community will mean more small groups. And small groups may be a part of it, but community is something that defines a lifestyle devoted to Christ and his followers, our brothers and sisters. In the mean time, lets just use Acts as an example; that even if we aren't living together, we are, by God's compassion within us, still edifying, loving and sacrificing for eachother in amazing ways.
I found this to be the case also, when my wife and I lived in a foreign country on missions for 7 months. We desperately needed people around us, and unfortunately didn't have many. Often times these experiences bind people together, but we get back to the US and it often doesn't translate...and yet sometimes it does. Why is it that sometimes something "magical" if you will happens and community if you want to call it this happens? It is somewhat mystical and spiritual, but quite amazing and wonderful when it happens.
Thanks for your reply, I will post some other thoughts soon.
Phil