I love the Holy Spirit. If we are willing searchers/learners, He will use a variety of avenues to teach us.
Recently a friend of mine moved out to Roch. to join with other christians in a local fellowship of believers. They happen to meet in a house every week. They spend the whole day together and share a meal of real food and also spiritual food. They spend time sharing what God has done the past week and what He has been teaching them. Each man shares what he has been teaching his own family that week.
Sunday morning my pastor spoke on the body of christ and the unity in spite of the diversity. Interesting.
All of this has raised lots questions in me. How can our local body incorporate the positive aspects that I see in their body. I like the accountablity aspect of knowing that you will have an opportunity to share what you are learning from the Word each week as opposed to just showing up and expecting to be spoon fed someone elses thoughts.(although that has merit too) I like the concept of community, of spending time together for more than a couple hours at a time. It is difficult to accomplish the one anothers when you are segmented into pews for an hour with only a 1minute greeting time for interaction.
So does this mean that I am ready to leave my current church to join theirs? No. I just want to be more mindful of opportunities for community -chances to spend time with other members outside of corporate worship, to get to know them (epignosis/koinania) with experiential knowledge/real fellowship, to be able to recognize their needs and take/make the time to meet them. I love being self-emloyed because it makes it easier to accomplish that, if I maintain a proper perspective. Also I need to find some type of accountability to maintain my study in the Word.
Those are some thoughts that I have. Comments?
posted by Todd Paris @ 8:09 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
comments? absolutely.
I could probably talk about all this for hours. I hear what you are saying and yes good preaching is good but where is the church? I mean where is the fellowship Where are the relationships of substance that others see and go "wow look at those folks loving on each other....they must be christians"? This is a large part of why I stepped away from the church here for a while. I wasn't connecting getting teached at but not connecting. I long for fellowship, for unity, I believe those are things that Christ prays for, that would please Him to see more of. But how, what does it look like. Believe it or not for me commenting on peoples sites, letting them know I am gonna pray for them, or am willing to encourage them is one way I feel the connections I long for. Sometimes just sitting after a service or taking time to do something outside of church with someone is good too. I often try to make it a point to discuss spiritual things.
Church. I am praying for unity. For truer fellowship. For growth. For us to look more like Christ in a real and relevant way.
I am rambling on now. And have already filled too much of your comment space. Thanks for you thoughts man.
Hmmm.... Obviously, you're not the only one with similar thoughts. there are several "programs" available that focus on food/ relationships as a connection method. Some examples are:
http://www.friendshipfirst.com/home.asp
http://alphacourse.org/
I can't vouch for either one of these approaches. I have heard from a missionary in Russia (or, some country formerly known as Russia) who is very effectively using the Alpha course with college students.
Anyway, I can't decide if canned curriculum is the way to go or not. It almost seems forced, if you know what I mean.
I have an opportunity to start a small group with some younger (20s-30s) guys and may take a similar apporach with that group if I decide to lead.
Our church seems to have a solid base of men's small groups but really needs to expand that base and add a similar setup for the women. This has been mentioned several times in the last two years and noone has stepped up to the plate to organize the women's small group thing. It was just mentioned again last night during evening service, so, if you think about it, pray that the spark will ignite!
Todd,
What about a Sunday School Class without a curriculum? If you ran a regular meeting of students that focused on one section of God's Word for the week and then got together to discuss it, would that work? You could have one student be a facilitator -- maybe even rotate that responsibility! If your group really needed to focus on men's issues, make the class men only. Limit the class to 6 guys. If more sign up, spin off another group. Run the class like you would a fireside debrief for wilderness trips. After all, you only have to step outside of your front door to experience the wilderness!
Think about reading Genesis (for example) with an eye for parenting or leadership or missions or devotion/worship. Make sure that the time is filled with observations, interpretation, AND application. Radical thought = have each member choose a different version to read that week. Allow for interaction of a variety of people.
Radio Bible Class made this format into a radio show. Mart DeHaan would lead the discussion and each person would add their own personal color to the discussion.
I'll bet you can hear the broadcast online!
Here's hoping for a men's group being started in each of our churches!
Mike
Todd, are there no guys to connect with there at Mountainside for accountability? What about my pals, Don Reichard or Tim Filler?
What about an online forum? Could we set a day to have posted by? Share at least one post per week about something that you are studying? Just an idea.
Mike
PS -- thanks for the phone call today! :)
Anthony,
Taking time to do things outside of church is a great way to build the relationship. Worship together in church is a great way to build relationships too. Ministry partnerships often generate strong connection points. (Some of my best friends at WyBC are in youth ministry with me)
Thanks for commenting,
Mike
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