Thin~Spaces

Camping at Soda Springs

Last weekend, we went camping with three other families. Camping is such a great thing to do. Getting away from your normal activities, changing your living situation and sharing a group experience in the great out doors.

For many of us, the community you feel with your fellow campers is the closest thing to a real community that many of us ever experience in our modern world. Take our group for example. While we had scheduled only one communal meal, everyone shared what they brought. Many of us brought much more than we needed so we could share.

We started acting more like an extended family as the days wore on. What a refreshing time! Eating, talking, sharing and just being together for a few days and sharing our lives. To me, life is about times like this and not our jobs, possessions or aspirations. 

A Mystery

(I’ve come to realize that my latest series of posts is somewhat backwards. A regular reader reads from the bottom up while a new visitor may read from the top down. The latter is how the following three posts are best read.  This is a rather strange consequence from exploring an idea  in blog form.)

My earlier though on how I could work in two types of churches was not the issue I was ruminating on. The deeper notion is that of “what constitutes the church.” Is it a place we meet, a gathering of people or a quality of relationship?

I’d have to say that the church is not the building or place we meet. Meeting in a church building does not make us the church any more than sitting in a race car makes us a race driver. Secondly, gathering as a group of people with a faith in Christ does not make us the church either.

History is replete with atrocities committed by groups of people with a strong religious ideology and belief in Christ. After all, many southern churches were pro-slavery in the early 19th century. The oppression and brutality of slavery as practiced in America at that time was absolutely contrary to our understanding of what Christ was on about.  Meeting as a group of people who claim the name of Christ does not make us the church either. Then what does?

Jesus said, “…remain in my love. If you obey my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s command and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

Being the church is to be in the quality of relationship that is marked by LOVE. It is when we love each other and those who do not know Christ that we are manifesting the church. This is a mystery that we must live. They church exists in the moments of relationship where we are thinking/being/acting/relating/living/giving expression to the love of Christ. 

I welcome this mystery of the church: those ephemeral moments of relationship when we operate in the Spirit & Love of Christ. How this happens, I don’t know nor can I explain it. It is the Spirit of Christ that allows us to be the church.

ephemeral noun  (1817)

something ephemeral; specifically : a plant that grows, flowers, and dies in a few days
Merriam-Webster

--------------

The

Ephemeral

Church

exists only in the present interrelation of God and a group of people. When two or more people are gathered in the Spirit of Christ, we have the church. Apart from that ephemeral moment, our churches ceases to be a living & vibrant organism and degenerate into the shallow husk of organized religion.

Church is ephemeral

I’ve been doing a lot of reflexive thinking about why I’m involved with more than one form of church. I knew it was always congruent with my view of God’s people but my own reasons were a mystery to me.

This morning I stumbled across a great quote from within Brian McLaren’s book “The Last Word and The Word After That” which just nails it for me. I almost let out an audible “Yessss” (You have to see Napoleon Dynamite) when I read the following.

“Deep ecclesiology for us means that we honor the church in all its forms, from the most historic and hierarchical forms of church – Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox – through he middle range of more congregational or local Protestant churches to the low rang of storefront and house churches and even below that….There are very ephemeral forms of church.”

I value the church in all its forms even if I’m partial to the more ephemeral forms of church. I believe that the more ephemeral forms of Church co-exist within all the forms of church but are not localized within them.

This is why I can be part of an institutional and a home church. Within human relationships, I see the same dynamic and ephemeral church which I think of as the Spirit of the church.

This ephemeral church centers on the interrelationship of people and therefore ebbs and flows as all human relationships do. It rises within one group for a season, grows, flourishes, and then dies back only to re-emerge within other relational groupings within the church form.

As a whole, the ephemeral church continues to flourish much like the seasonal cycle of a flower. Its beauty arises in its time then vanishes only to reappear next season. When a church form has its subset of ephemeral churches, there is health and growth.

Church is ephemeral regardless of the form/soil it is planted in. When a church looses this ephemeral dynamic, it becomes desolate, sterile and lacks the vibrant life it once had. People know that they have lost something but can’t place their finger on what they lost.

I need to think about this some more so I’ll end here. For NOW.

Hmmm.. What to name this post?

The last week has just flown by! I’ve been spending lots of time with people and just hanging out. Last Sunday I preached a follow-up sermon to one that I gave a few weeks ago. I titled it “Church: It’s Not About You”This marks my 4th sermon given at the Bonny Lake Church we have been helping out.

A few weeks ago, the pastor asked me to become a staff pastor at his church. I replied, “Is another pastor what the Church really needs?” From his reaction, he must have expected me to jump at the chance to “pastor again.” (In the institutional sense of the role.) I just smiled, sat back in my chair and took a bite of my lunch.

After further conversation and dialog I left the issue squarely undecided with only the request to pray about it some more. We have not discussed the issue further so i'm content to live in two worlds at the moment. The instituional church and the more relational dynamic of the house church.

Gathering Together as God’s Family

Last night we gathered for our first love feast. We met at Glorianna’s home and set up tables in her gazebo and back yard. The weather was perfect and the people began to arrive at 7pm. I had expected 10-14 people to show up and feast with us. Instead there were about 24-28 people.

Before we began the there was a small introduction to the symbolism of the feast as a pre-figuring of that great meal we will eat at the Table of the Lord. We sang a song of invitation that asked Christ to share with us as we celebrate his work on the Cross through food and fellowship. Glorianna then lit a candle that served to remind us of Christ’s presence in out midst and we broke bread together and helped ourselves to the food.

Aside from the initial emphasis, the meal did not feel like a communion service or especially sacred even though it was an expression of our communion. The feast was an ordinary meal made sacred by the presence of Christ at our gathering.

Sitting at the end of a table observing the conversations, body language, and smiles of those gathered I felt a great joy and peace welling up in my soul. From the looks on everybody’s faces, they were feeling it too. Great food and great company made for a wonderful evening.

While standing in the food line as everyone was getting seconds, Dora expressed her joy by saying, "We should do this more often." She said while helping herself to more shrimp fettuccini. "I love large gatherings of friends…" after a moment’s silence she said, "no, you all are more like my extended family." I agreed with her sentiment and then asked her if there was more fettuccini left.

"Family" I thought, what a great description of the intent of the feast. Gathering together as God’s people; His extended family.

Love Feast Tomorrow

On Wednesday we are having our 1^st Love Feast with some friends and acquaintances. I just loved using the name as it sounds so 1960’s and hippie like. The most common answer I got was "Well what is it?"

I simply replied, "Come and see. Oh, and bring some food to share."

Those of you who are familiar with the New Testament know what this is about. It is an obscure reference to most people but we are looking forward to the symbolism of the communal meal. I’m primarily thinking of the symbolism of the feast as a pre-figuring of heaven and giving thanks for the work of Christ.

I have Gordon Fee to thank for this idea. I remember sitting in class-after-class at Regent College and having Gordon emphasize the role and symbolism of the table. We are going to enter/indwell/experience that symbolism with our feast tomorrow.

Another Quiz.

While i don't think a truly emergent theology has developed, i find the results of my most recent quiz to be interresting. IF this were true, then i am a mixed bag of theology. It is a fun quiz and i'd be interrested in hearing how others scored.

My score is -----

You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

What are you?

McLaren

I’ve been reading "The Last Word and The Word After That" by Brian McLaren. There was a lot of buzz in the blogsphere some time ago about it and I decided to wait a while for things to settle down before I chime in on this book.

So far, I’m in chapter eight and am finding it to be a very interesting and thoughtful read. While the dogma of Hell makes a great backdrop for the story, I find the subtexts in the book to be more interesting so far. As an author, Brian does a grood job of pointing out /subverting the common Evangelical mentality in America.

If you have not read his other two books in the series, don’t worry. This book is accessible as a stand alone title. The subtexts of the book begin in the first book, "A New Kind of Christian." Which I highly recommend.

Springers Church?

I’ve grown very tired of the whole Institutional vs. Home vs. Mobile vs. Micro church talk. While revisiting some of my earlier posts, I have come to see that my current opinion is more moderate than it has been in the past. Not that I am for any one style of church over the next.

Each style of church listed is problematic in its own unique way. All communities have their benefits and corresponding liabilities. Often times, communities’ transition through all of these forms listed above in their life-span. There is no perfect church as there are no perfect Christ Followers.

If God’s church were perfect, we would not have most of the New Testament. Think about it for a while. How perfect was the Church that Paul wrote to?

Live from the Church in Corinth it’s the Jerry Springer Show!
Today’s show: "I’m Sleeping with my Fathers Wife"

Paul writes to dysfunctional, problem ridden, divided, downright sinful communities. The Church is what it is. I’m not advocating a tolerance for the way a dysfunctional church deals with people nor am I excusing a churches sin. Human relationships are often times filled with misunderstandings, conflict, strife, disappointment, disillusionment and pettiness. Why should a community of people be immune from these "dark sides" of the human experience?

A healthy community is one that can transcend the dark side of our relational experience and unite together in an honest love for one another. It is our love for one another that demonstrates the power and presence of God in our midst. When we give in to the petty, controlling, self-serving side of our natures then we actually nullify the witness of the church and defame the message of Christ.

No church is perfect! There is not ideal way to "do" church. Christ shows us how to "Be" the church. The church is not an organization or an event. It is a community of people. Some communities are large and anonymous while others are small and intimate. The key is to find a community you can grow with.

Quite simply: you will find the darkness in any human relationship if you look for it yet if you look for the good you will see it. The same holds true for the church be it a Home, Mobile, Micro or larger institutional variety.

From my experience, I’ve been the recipient of the darkness in an organized church system. Yet I do not abandon the church altogether, I pray that God will bring reformation to his people.