Who do you look like?
There’s a church planting couple here in the NW that came from a traditional church, had worked in established ministry for years, and felt “called” to work with people in downtown Portland. I do not know these people well so I cannot speak with much insight as to how their lives and hearts have changed over years of doing this ministry. But I can tell you that their appearance has changed. She has had dreads (and has since cut them off and started them again), they have many piercings, tattoos, and they dress the part too. It might be easy for us skeptical types to look at them and make jokes about how they’re trying to look cool or something of that nature. But concerning the way they look my wife heard the woman say that the two of them did not set out to look different and change their appearance. Instead, she said, the more time you spend with a people and the more you fall in love with a people the more you want to look like them and be like them.
As I processed this I remembered me and my other tall and skinny white friend who lived in Portugal together. We stood out. We looked different. We were loud when we road the bus. We wore t-shirts and baggy jeans. But by the time we left some things had changed. Without ever trying or even thinking about it we acted differently in public settings. We dressed differently (embarrassingly enough we began to wear tighter jeans). In many ways, small ways, we began to look more like the people we were with.
I’m intrigued by this idea in two ways.
- Are you loving the people around you to the extent that you might start looking like them?
- Is your Christian community living and loving in such a way that people who hang out with you are starting to look like you?
Sunday: Did we Find the Point?
In my previous post “What’s the Point?” I asked some questions concerning what the point of the churches weekend worship gathering. I must clarify one thing first. I am not standing on the edge of a bridge ready to jump off, ready to quit church, and wipe my hands of it forever. On the contrary I see my future as starting new churches for people who will not walk into our current church doors. But as I’m working toward planting this church and as I’m making whole piles of mistakes planting the Renovatus church I’ve begun to notice that not only does most of society around us not think that church is important, but even a large number of Christ followers do not see the value in the churches long standing tradition of gathering on the weekend. I think this is a problem. And to even further the problem I look at what I spout off as my own answer to the question “what’s the point?” and I think that my answers do not resonate with either jaded Christians or unbelieving others.
Let me do my best in one short paragraph to summarize the discussion that happened in the comments of this blog (as it was cross-posted on Facebook)…There were many thoughts and ideas concerning whether or not there is any reason to gather on the weekend as the church is known to do. Some have done away with it and gathering with friends during the week instead. Others have done away with it in part due to the churches corruption. Still others have taken breaks from the gathering because of burn out or disagreements. All in all this aspect of the discussion was much less tidy, and for the most part reiterated the original question: is there any important reason to gather on Sundays? Some of the answers as to why we should gather or why it is important to gather together include that we gather together to be reminded that we’re not crazy, or if we are crazy at least we have other crazies in with us. Remembering we’re not alone is a big deal especially when you couch your understanding of Christianity within the idea of living out an alternative society in our world. Living alternatively just doesn’t work well unless you do it with others in community. We need to know that we have support, a safe place, and encouragement. In addition to being a transformed and unique community of people Scripture also talks about how in Christ we as individuals become a new creation. Could it be that the weekend gathering is a public and open way for us to express and profess this identity to ourselves, God, and others. In my smaller group of friends I generally (and naturally) am around people that I connect with more easily. In the larger weekend gatherings an odd smattering of people are brought together under one banner, for one purpose (ideally right?), all united even thought they are extremely different from each other. In that larger gathering our uniqueness, our oneness, our unity, our transformation is all being proclaimed. It must be noted, however, that all this cannot be said without identifying the fact that at different points in history the church has lost its voice, forgotten its unique calling, and has wandered into some fairly destructive behaviors. And while this is true and must be said, the underlying theme of this discussion is that there’s something broken (in either huge or subtle ways depending on your context) that needs renovation.
I personally do not have any sort of great exclamation point statements to add to the end of this discussion. I can, however, tell you some of the things I’m processing through. I think that it is essential to the Christians life to gather on Sundays. I’m not confident of why, and I’m not confident that the manner in which we do it fulfills this need, but I do believe that God has wired us in such a way to need that communal gathering. The people that talked about how worshiping together reminds them that they’re not alone might be enough to answer this question, though I’m still uncertain. I believe there is something crucially important to being a part of a bigger gathering that is not about “me” in particular but about the community calling out to God in one voice. In smaller groups and amongst close friends its generally always about me or you, but in those bigger gatherings it’s about us and Him. I think there’s something important to that. I think there’s something important about being challenged to live like Christ more deeply which often happens (or is intended to happen) through the teaching. While all teaching doesn’t match this, I think the idea behind the sermon/message is to equip you and challenge you to live differently. I’m sure this could be accomplished in different ways and through different mediums but I don’t think it happens very well unless its intentional. It is super rare for a group of friends who are hanging out to spontaneously open up the Bible in order to grapple with some of the deep theological ideas that might challenge our daily lives. Generally the only times those conversations “spontaneously” happen is when you’ve got a group of seminary students together.
That’s all I’ve got for now. I mean, I could throw some stuff up there about how God commands us to gather, but I think that’s a somewhat fruitless discussion. It’s like telling an alcoholic to “stop it”. Well duh! Of course he/she should stop drinking, if it were as easy as someone just saying “stop it. It’s bad for you.” then there would be very few alcoholics! It’s not just about what’s right or wrong, what we’re supposed to do and what we’re not supposed to do, it’s about the journey there, it’s about the purpose of it, it’s about the person behind the commands, etc. Also, there are many good practical or technical reasons why we should gather together as the church is known to do. It’s easier to gain momentum as a group, it’s easier to support mission work, ministries, and to help people. You can have a larger impact on a neighborhood or city as a larger group and can additionally be a place where people feel like they can visit without being known or whatever. But I consider all these technical/practical which are of great importance but by themselves do not resonate as much as the deeper theological and heart ideas that the two paragraphs above talk about.
How am I doing? Are we tracking? Do you disagree? Do I make sense? Can you teach me something?
Thanks for engaging in this dialog, may we all be sharpened and grow together!
peace.
The New Normal
My wife is always in a form of crisis. You see, her personality is such that she’s a dreamer. She’s an entrepreneur at heart, someone who loves starting things and getting others to carry them out. Her crisis comes because she struggles with a discontent because of her desire to be somewhere else, to be someone else, or to do something different. Over the years it has been a wonderful blessing for our family!
Right now, however, one of her critiques is that we’ve lost our “hippie” way. It has been a process over the last four years of us learning new things, making new commitments, and cultivating new passions. Nothing necessarily huge…cloth diapering, chemical free, organic food, gardening, riding bikes, taking the bus, etc. It’s simple stuff that many of us, if not most of us do. But lately…wait for it…we’ve begun to use paper plates occasionally! We’ve gotten addicted to (as my previous post shared) X Factor on youtube! We didn’t take the bus at all during the summer! We use ziplock bags and plastic tupperware!
Ok, so you’ve made it thus far, here is what the post has been working toward. Through my wife’s worries over our use of paper products and therefore the compromise of our ideals, we were able to notice something interesting. At first certain choices are incredibly hard. It takes constant remembering and a willingness/ability to make continual new and different choices. It’s hard. At times its exhausting. Other times making new life choices is real easy at first as you have the excitement factor motivating and encouraging you. In these situations its not until a few months into it that you hit a wall and you question why you ever even went down this road! I think this is true of breaking your addiction to creating excess garbage and waste in your home and breaking your addiction to nicotine in its different forms (obviously, this is a very loose connection that is not equal on both sides!) BUT…BUT, the wonderful place that we’ve found ourselves with some of those life changes we’ve made in the last four years is that we don’t even notice them! What was, at one point, a constant annoying choice is now second nature. I don’t even notice that we don’t use chemicals. I don’t miss them and rarely remember that we don’t have them in our home. It’s become normal, routine…
I don’t know about you, but there are certain things in my life right now that I crave to become routine and normal. There are some painful choices, annoying choices, and constant choices that just get old to make even though I know they’re the right choices to make!
I hope you find yourself wanting to make new choices, and anticipating the day that those choices become your new normal, your new ground floor to which you can continue to build up on. What a blessing it is to choose.
