Category: community

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Community: All For One, One For All

“All for one, one for all” was the motto of the Three Musketeers. It could very easily be the motto of the church. As a people who follow Jesus Christ, you could say that we are all for One, and that One is for all of us. At least, that’s the way it should be. Sometimes though, it seems that the church has become more “all for us.”

I think that Jesus had the same idea as Alexandre Dumas when he established his Church, his Body. Scripture records Jesus teaching the importance of our relationships within a community of his followers. In Matthew 5:21-22, he says that treating others with anger or contempt puts us in danger of judgement. In verses 23-24 of the same chapter, Jesus tells us to get our relationships put right before we come to worship him (Hmmm, I wonder how many places would be empty on Sunday mornings if we really believed that). I think it is interesting that in those verses Jesus tells us to go and be reconciled with our brother or sister if they have anything against us. He doesn’t put that responsibility on the one who has been offended, and he doesn’t tell us to go if we think we are responsible for offending someone. In Matthew 18, Jesus does direct us to go to those who sin, but again, the goal is reconciliation. And, let’s face it, almost all of our problems within a community are due to things other than direct sin (although sin can result because of those things).
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the church as a body. To me, this chapter contains a perfect picture of what a community of faith is. It’s a body. Think about your body. Does your hand deliberately form a fist and hit your nose with it? Of course not! If your hand accidentally moves in a way that causes it to strike your nose and cause it to bleed, does your hand say, “Oh, well. I didn’t mean it, so I don’t need to do anything.” No, your hand is involved in getting tissues and holding them to your nose and trying to stop the bleeding. Every part of the body is important, no matter how small or weak. If any part of the body is hurt, the rest of the body feels that pain. A bad headache can cause the stomach to feel sick. An imbalance in the feet can cause damage to the knees, or a misalignment of the spine. The body is designed by the Creator to function as one, and when it does we see the glory of a great athlete or a prima ballerina.
Christ’s body is also designed to function as one. In John 17:11, Jesus asks the Father to make us one, just as he and the Father are one. When the body of Jesus functions as one, we see the glory of grace, the beauty of love, and the Kingdom of God is built up. When that body stubs it’s toe, or when a hand accidentally flies up and causes hurt to another part, that damage must be repaired. If it is not, the result is a deformed caricature of a body that is ugly and repulsive. The result is a body that does not bring glory to its Creator.
All for one, one for all. What would things be like if Christ’s body on this earth lived by that motto?
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Foundations

Today was Professional Career Day at school. This morning the sixth grade had an assembly where they heard a speaker talk about preparing now for their future careers. He spoke about foundations, how everything they did now laid a foundation for what they wanted to do. If they didn’t lay a good foundation now, they would never be what they wanted to be.

Jesus said that we must build our house on a solid foundation. He said that unless we listened to his teachings and followed them, the house that we build will fall flat when trouble comes. I think this is applicable to the church as well as to our individual lives.
There have been many foundations on which churches have been built over the centuries. Some have been built on the authority of a man or council of men. Some have been built on this creed or that confession. Others have claimed that they were built on Scripture alone. Some have even been established on the foundation of a political leader’s ideas of church and state. Today, some churches are built on a foundation of building a large organization. Others are built on a certain idea of what’s going to happen in the end. There are churches erected on the foundation of doing things differently from the way they’ve always been done. Others are established on building community, or helping other people.
Not all of these things are bad or useless. Some of them are very good. People are brought to faith and Christians are built up by many of these things. The problem comes when we make anything other than Jesus Christ the foundation. When anything else is the base of the house we are building, there will be strong areas to be sure. There will also be areas that will be terribly weak, with holes and other defects. It is those weak areas that will cause the house to eventually come crumbling down.
Like our lives, our churches must be built on Jesus Christ and his teachings. He is the head of the church, and we are his body. He is the sole reason the church exists. He is everything. Let us make sure that our lives and our communities of faith, regardless of what we call them, are built on the only foundation guaranteed to be strong and sure – Jesus.
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Community and Church Discipline

Church discipline is a subject that is seen in many different ways by different people and different churches. We are given general guidance in Matthew 18 and in Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church. Over the centuries, it has been misused by those in authority and been ignored by others.

While I have always believed that the concept of church discipline is Biblical, the way that concept is carried out has always been a bit fuzzy. In some churches, a person can be subject to discipline for things like not attending every time the doors are open, or going to movies. Some churches don’t hold their members accountable at all. Other churches carry out discipline only to see those folks go across town to another church. There have even been cases where those who have been disciplined have sued the church.

In the last year or so, I have gained an appreciation for what church discipline was in the early church, and for what it can be today. In the institutional church, things are structured in a way that prevents people from really getting to know one another and forming a real community. Even the small group is usually conducted in a way that keeps folks from knowing and being known. This not only allows folks to put on a good front and hide what’s going on, it also prevents people from being able to speak into the lives of others because that close relationship isn’t there.

In a simple church, such as St. Thomas, one of the most important things is community, a sense of family. The gatherings are for the purpose of building one another up, and transparency is not only encouraged but worked for. The goal is to be open and honest with each other, and allow others to speak into our lives. It can be a messy process, but it is also vital to spiritual formation. In the time we have been meeting together, I have grown in my relationship with the Father, and closer to my brothers and sisters. They have become my family along with my physical family. If I ever did something that would cause me to be removed from the fellowship of this grace filled group, it would break my heart. I can see how Paul’s instruction to remove the sinner from fellowship could be so devastating and how it would cause the person to repent.

Maybe church discipline would be effective if more congregations really were communities of faith and not just organizations.

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Thanksgiving

Thursday is Thanksgiving, the day set aside to stop and reflect on the things that we are thankful for. Then we fall asleep watching football. The good thing is that many people really do stop and think about their blessings.

There is much in my life for which I am thankful. First, and most importantly, I am thankful that the Creator of the universe is my Abba, and that he calls me son. I am thankful that I am a coheir with Christ of all things. I am grateful for God’s love and grace, and for his patience with me.

I am thankful for my family. I was blessed to grow up with a mom and dad who loved me unconditionally, and taught me a lot about following Jesus. I am thankful for my sister and her family, and for their love. I am thankful that they live relatively close. I am extremely thankful for the wonderful woman who shares my life. Jan is a blessing from the Father, and her love and support are essential to me. God has allowed us the privilege of bringing up two fantastic children. Josh and Jennie have given us countless wonderful memories, and we continue to be very, very proud of them. I am thankful for my in-laws. I have always felt loved and accepted, and Jan’s dad continues to be a strong support to us.

Like many folks in today’s economy, I am thankful I have a job. Beyond that, I am grateful to have a job where I can see a bit of difference made in what I do. I enjoy working with the middle school kids, and love the opportunity to coach the high school basketball team God has given me.
I am thankful for the things God has taught me over the last few years. My faith has been tested and stretched, and my dependence on the Father and my love for Jesus has deepened. Although their are still areas where the answers aren’t there, I am comfortable with the questions. I am grateful for the community God has led us to. We are a fellowship that is committed to loving God and loving each other. We are learning to open up to each other and accept each other, warts and all. We are seeking to live as free people in Christ and to help others find that freedom. The folks in our community have become a family, and they are all a real blessing to us.

I am thankful for the friends I have made along my journey so far, and for the ones who will come along later. I am grateful for those of you who read this blog, and for those who write the things that God uses to teach me. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I am extremely blessed.

I will have limited computer access for the next few days, so the blog will be silent. I hope your Thanksgiving is blessed. Enjoy the day, and spend a bit of time thanking God.

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I Am Sad Today

My heart is grieving today. Today would have been the 11th birthday of a little girl named Zahra Baker. She is the girl who was reported missing over a month ago, and whose remains are being found in various places. Those of you who live in the Charlotte area are familiar with the story.

My heart is grieving, but it also cries out for justice. I must admit that a large part of me asks for no mercy for someone who would abuse, and then kill, a child. Another part of me wonders what could cause someone to commit such unspeakable acts, and wonders at the injustices along the way that allowed this.

I could probably come up with a long list of failures on the part of people that caused this tragedy to happen. The whole story has not come out, but there was allegedly abuse at home. I don’t know how many visits social service workers made, or if they noticed anything amiss. Relatives have said that they knew that things were not good at home. One of them was quoted as saying that Zahra had a horrible home life, and that, “this was something…we knew was going happen.” The family’s neighbors had not seen the girl out of the house for at least a month, and some of them didn’t even know she lived there. My heart grieves for a world where relatives know something is going on and feel, for whatever reason, unable to step into the situation. I grieve for a world where neighbors don’t know what is going on in the lives of those around them.

I am not condemning the relatives or neighbors in this case. I don’t know their situations, so I have no right. What I do know, and what breaks my heart is that we live in a world where we have shut ourselves off from our neighbors, or in some cases, our own families. We leave our houses in the morning, drive to work by ourselves, spend our day barely interacting with our coworkers, drive back home, where we shut the door to the outside world. At the most, we wave to our neighbor as we drive away. How many of us spend time with those who live around us, getting to know them as people? How many of us who call themselves followers of Christ spend time with our neighbors without an agenda to “get them saved?” How many of us see them as beings made in the image of God, rather than as those on the “outside?”

Abuse and other problems happen in churches just like they do “out in the world.” We don’t pick up on these things because we do not build deeper relationships. How many of us really know those we call brothers and sisters in Christ? How many churches are filled with folks who show up on Sunday morning, settle into their comfortable seat, sing a few songs, listen to a stirring (or not) talk, then get into their cars and drive back home, waiting until the next week before they see anyone in the church again? Even many of our small groups are superficial, and don’t let any “fellowship” delve into what is really going on in our lives. We worship with people who look like us, think like us, and drive the same quality car as us. We make sure that our time together is spent on things that don’t unmask us, so we accumulate more knowledge. We equate discipleship to imparting knowledge about Scripture and the spiritual life rather than pouring our life into the life of another person. We are afraid to let others inside the wall, because we fear what they might say. We fear rejection or condemnation.

My heart grieves. It also cries, ‘Enough!” It is time for the body of Christ to stop acting like a bunch of unconnected parts, and begin spending time with one another, building into each other’s lives. This will be revolutionary for many in the institutional church, because it will mean that the majority of our time will need to be spent in going from house to house rather than from meeting to meeting. We will spend more time building relationships than building programs. Our money will go to help individuals in need instead of a building program. We will know who has need and giving will come naturally, not from a “benevolence ministry.”

Relationships are not easy. They can be very messy, and sometimes painful. The alternative is continuing in the, “How are you doing?” “Fine,” way of dealing with people. We can let down our guard and develop deep relationships fueled by love, or we can stay on the surface and never get to know others. We can know people and be known well enough to step in and help when it’s needed, or we can say we never saw it coming when the world collapses on them. We can be the body of Christ, or we can be people who just “go to church.”

Choose wisely.

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When Is Worship?

This morning, I passed a church with a sign that read, “Worship is Sunday, 11:00 AM.” I guess that what they meant was that their Sunday service was at 11:00, so potential visitors would know when to show up. As usual, my thoughts went in a different direction.

I think there are many churches that would make the same statement, with the emphasis on the word is. They might not say it with words, but their actions speak loudly. For many Christians, worship is Sunday at 11. That is the event, what church is all about. How many times have you heard people say, “I go to church on Sunday to get refreshed and prepared for the week ahead.” Now, it is true that the times we get together with our brothers and sisters in Christ should be refreshing. It is also true that times of teaching and encouragement are needed to enable us to live in this world. We in the body do need each other.

What I take issue with, is the idea that worship is only singing and praying, and that corporate worship only happens when the church gets together in a certain place at a certain time. I believe that worship (declaring the worthiness of God) can happen any place, at any time, and in anything we do. When our community gathers on Sunday morning, that is worship. When we meet at someone’s house, and eat together, listening to, and encouraging each other, that is worship. When some of us help one of our number with yard work, or serve meals at a homeless shelter, that…you guessed it. Worship. For the follower of Jesus, all of life is to be worship to the One who gave his life for us. As the Apostle Paul says, eating, drinking, and everything else is to be done for the glory of God.

So, gather with other followers of Jesus tomorrow. Sing praises to God, and be taught. Just remember that there are six more days in the week to gather together and build each other up, six more days to love God by loving others.

Worship is 24/7.

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Different Socks

I wrote this a few years ago when I was driving a shuttle bus.

While down at Fort Jackson waiting on my group, I saw a bunch of new soldiers in formation getting ready to go to lunch. All of a sudden, one of the drill instructors began to get all over a young man for his socks. His socks! He had pushed them down into his running shoes so they didn’t come up as high as the socks everyone else was wearing. It shows that one of the values of the armed forces is conformity. This is a necessary thing for an organization like the military. Non-conformity can be dangerous.

Many Christians like the picture of “Christian soldiers”, etc. It’s interesting that those who see Christians as part of an army seem to also highly value conformity, as if non-conformity can be dangerous spiritually. This doesn’t fit with the Biblical idea of following Jesus. If you look through the Gospels and the Epistles, you can see the emphasis on unity in diversity. The only thing we are called to conform to is the likeness of Christ.

It is time for the church to allow and celebrate the different expressions of faith and godliness that are found in the body.

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Questions From Jesus

This morning in our gathering, we were talking about some of the questions that Jesus asked during his time on earth. There are three in particular that we are going to attempt to answer as individuals and as a body.

The first question is, “Who do you say that I am?” When Jesus asked his disciples this question, Peter gave the famous answer that the Church is built upon. He said, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” Jesus commended him for this answer and declared that it was revealed to him from God. Not long after this, Jesus was calling Peter, “Satan” for declaring that Jesus was not going to die. Even though Peter made a great declaration of faith, he didn’t totally understand all that went into that statement. He wasn’t thinking of a Messiah that would submit and die. He was still looking for a King that would defeat the pagan Romans and restore the glory of Israel.

Things haven’t changed that much since the first century. We make the same declaration, yet we usually don’t understand everything that means. We tell people that Jesus is Savior, or that Jesus is Lord. But, do we really live like that is true? Do we really get it?

As we attempt to answer the three questions, we are going to try and do it without resorting to the stock answers we’ve heard all our lives. We’re not even allowed to use Peter’s answer. 🙂 It will be interesting.

Who do you say that Jesus is?

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Community Happenings

One of our goals at St. Thomas is to get to know each other, in order to grow together as a body and be able to build each other up. We can’t do that by meeting only on Sunday morning, so we have been getting together at other times. About two weeks ago we gathered at a house and spent a few hours together, eating and drinking, and telling each other a little bit of our stories. We talked about the earliest age at which we remember being wounded in spirit. It was eye opening and I think it gave us all some understanding of where each of us is coming from and how those early experiences have shaped us.

A couple of nights ago, a few of us gathered at our house to hear one of our number and her daughter tell us about a recent trip to Europe. They showed pictures they had taken and told us about their travels. It was more than just a record of places visited though, as they shared how God had traveled with them and had spoken through their experiences, and how that continues to strengthen their faith. It was a good time of fellowship.

Some would say that what happened those two nights was not church, that it was, at best, a small group meeting. I firmly believe that the church was gathered together, and as we gathered, we mutually built each other up and grew closer as members of one another. We didn’t sing any songs, listen to a sermon, or take up an offering.

But it was church. It was church.

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Community

Community is one of the favorite buzz words being used in churches today. Churches talk about being a community of faith, some call themselves _______________ Community Church. Now, I have nothing against community churches, the local body I gather with is St. Thomas Community Church. I also believe community is a vital thing for the church.

I wonder though, if we understand what community is. I’m not sure that most church goers know how to have community, or what it would look like. I also don’t think most church leaders understand it. Sometimes churches try to “build community” by having more Sunday school classes, or by having an extended meet and greet time during the Sunday morning service. Other churches have small groups throughout the week. Many times these efforts only serve as another program that gives the appearance of community, but does nothing to build up the people involved. Some smaller churches attempt to have community by seeking to control every area of their members’ lives.

One definition of community is: “a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society.” There are many other definitions, but it seems to me that this one fits what the church is meant to be. A local body of followers of Jesus is a group of people (that was a profound statement, wasn’t it). A local body is also within a larger society. So far, so good. I believe the key for the church is found in the found in the middle of the definition.

A community is a group living together. That may mean living in the same neighborhood, or even in the same house, and there are faith communities who do that. For most of us though, the idea of living together means doing life together. Doing life together is not easy in today’s society, but it is essential for community. It takes different forms, from a couple of people getting together for coffee one day a week to families meeting for dinner and spending time together. It can be “theology night” at a local pub, or folks in the church camping together. Doing life together can take many forms, but the important thing is that it happens more than just a couple of hours on Sunday.

A community is also a group with a common characteristic or interest. I believe that the only common interest that can bring about true community is Jesus. Church groups can form around many interests, from sports to cooking. “Accountability groups” are popular. While these groups can be good things, they can quickly become either social groups or exercises in navel gazing. The church has a built-in common characteristic. We are all members of the Body of Christ. We are all family. If a local body is focused on Jesus Christ, and is wrapped up in learning him, and being formed together into his image, we will grow closer together. We will invest ourselves and our resources in each others’ lives. We will grow to be open and vulnerable with one another. We will minister to each other. It’s not something that will happen overnight, in fact it make take years.

Being a community is like planting a garden. The plants don’t bear fruit right away. It takes constant, gentle care to keep the plants going. Sometimes weeds need to be pulled up. It can be messy. It may require effort when we don’t feel like it. But, the harvest is a beautiful thing.