these thoughts have been perpetuated and added to by the book "AND--the gathered and scattered church" by hugh halter and matt smay.
there are a lot of people ditching the organized church at present. i'm one of those defectors. most churches make me cringe. most books about church make me cringe. "Growing Your Church" bleh.
this book, AND, basically discusses the fact that we are called to be the body of Christ, to fellowship with one another, to encourage and spur one another on, to meet together, etc. ....but we are also called to go. go into all the world, love your neighbour as yourself. leave your father's land and go to a land He will show you. go into the slums. go and be salt and light where none has been before. go to the ends of the earth.
my pal jeremy recently pondered in a facebook note the paradox of the church's identity in light of these two very clear commands.
i've been pondering it too. in the context of the actual body of Christ and in the context of my own life. what do i desire more? safe and happy (there are air-quotes around that one) christian living with christians? or down and dirty (shout out ian noland) gospel-living. living and breathing the gospel where people still need it.
the guys who wrote AND gave a little diagram of the main components of the christian life, and the life of the church...it's three circles, overlapping...nah i'll just put the photo of it in here. that's probably illegal. meh.
mission: evangelism, showing people the love of Jesus, mercy ministry, etc...
community: friendship, a place of belonging for believers and God-seekers, biblical real deal community.
communion: time with God...your relationship with him. worship, prayer, quiet time, going to church (because really, a lot of people in that church are there to get more than give)
a few pages after this diagram there is another one: basically the same, except the "communion" circle is way bigger than the other two. it represents how a lot of us live as christians, and how most of our churches run and are focused...get people to church, get people in bible studies, get people to have quiet times, get people to be into worship.
and woot (raise the roof, props, power to 'em) for all of those things, they're all good. but they're not all. not everything. if you have a bunch of people trying to grow deeper with God, or at least hoping to be there enough to stay in the imagined good books, then you might slowly get some good shouting out of "God is good all the time, all the time God is good" and things like that...but what happens when they leave the church doors? or the bible study? or the quiet time? what happens when they're at the grocery store and someone's a jerk to them or they walk past a homeless man or a woman who could obviously use a friend or a friend who hates the word "church" is having a really hard time and there's no good answer but to turn to God...
what happens when real life happens?
sometimes people don't want to hear "pray about it" or "i'll pray for you" or "you should come to church".....and correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm not sure jesus ever uttered those words. or any of his disciples for that matter.
i have realized that my life as of late has become much living in the communion bubble and not much living elsewhere. and i'm a missionary! living in community! pfff.
i was thinking about this whole deal in the context of the church, and the book is talking about it too, that we really do need to disciple people to live like Jesus. Jesus didn't spend his whole day alone with the Father...he spent time with Him in the morning, then spent time in deliberate community with his disciples and others who tagged along, and with them (or at least with them watching) he spent time showing the heart of the Father to those who needed it. needed mercy, acceptance, forgiveness, food.
as the body of Christ, we need to figure out what it means to create community that is deeply inclusive for those who would otherwise avoid each other. people who are almost comical as friends. people who are passionate about God and people who have a lot of questions about God. the book calls them saints and sojourners. i actually just read this quote that i had on a sticky note: "every saint has a past, every sinner has a future"-oswald chambers. and i think that's how inclusive community is formed...there's common ground there that we need to spend some time standing on.
but how does a saint ever come across a sojourner? in comes the mission.
it all applies beautifully to the church as a body, but it's been hitting me hardcore as a person. if i am really trying to look and live like Jesus, i have to look and live like Jesus! i have to hang out with outcasts of society, the drunkards, the prostitutes, the thieves. i have to engage in deeply connected community. to give to and receive from the life that community holds.
it's all been said before...we are the body of Christ, not the body part. i'd say i'm a part of a finger. probably the pinky. and a little pinky on its own can't do much. isn't worth much. it's being part of the hand, the arm, the body, that gives it any worth or power. do i love my pinky on its own? yes. i would be very sad to lose it. does God love me on my own? heck yes He does. but He knows there's more for me when i'm connected. connected to the ones who pull me higher, and the ones who are hanging on for dear life.
all in all, we have to be ANDers. the church gathered AND sent. a tight family holding one another up AND a sent people, finding people and pulling them out of all their various prisons and sinkholes.
there's just so much more for us.
that's all i have to say really.
no, one final thought:
communion is obviously a word that means sharing, joining, etc. but the act of communion (the eucharist, te bread and wine)...what's that? sure we do it together, but what does it represent?
brokenness.
Jesus, broken and poured out.
that is what we're meant to commune with.
join in, share in, being broken and poured out.
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