Sure, I know it’s simply a commercial. But I keep sharing this video anyhow, because I think really such an effective picture of how to create community by simply sharing a common meal. Isn’t it funny how so many of us claim wish desperate for community, but haven’t linked with the people right next door, or across the hall?
THE WRONG ASSUMPTION
Some people think #RealChurch is only about moving one’s house of worship experience from a building to a house. Nevertheless that’s a gross oversimplification. We don’t want a smaller version of the same thing, or a small tweak to our existing form of chapel. We didn’t quit heading to church, simply because the pastor doesn’t wear blue jeans, or make enough pop culture recommendations, or use Snapchat. Many of these things are totally ” light “. Therefore, whenever you hypothesize might be found might actually pull us returning to big field Christianity, you betray the fact that you avoid really understand Christians who are doing #RealChurch.
When it comes to church, we not only want a different expression, we want an totally different experience. We are moving completely against current culture, such as current church culture. What am i saying? Very well, let me provide an exaggerated example. Right now, almost all of us belong to several different peer groupings. For some, it might break down such as this: we have our family, our co-workers, our neighbors, our friends, our fellow house of worship members, and perhaps a few folks we understand from an exercise class, a sport, or some other activity.
The reason we find ourselves in so many different circles is because existence are multiplistic, non-holistic, not integrated at all. Sure, there’s probably some overlap; we would go to church by of our friends, or we would go to an exercise class with a few co-workers, and so on. However for the most part, these different expert groups are distinct. As a result, we constantly have to select from investing time with this group, vs . that group. That’s why we feel so crammed all the time; there is simply not enough of us to go around. It’s like continually approaching up short on short term, and trying to determine which bill doesn’t get compensated.
WHAT WE REALLY WANT
The alternative to all or any this multiplicity is simplicity: an all natural, integrated approach to life, where there’s more terme conseillé between our various groups. Like, imagine what our life might have recently been like only a few generations ago, perhaps on a farm, outside a tiny town. We might have lived and worked at home, alongside us and neighbors; these neighbors would have been our friends, whom we also found at church. Not to mention, the work might have been real labor, rather than a sedentary desk job, so it would have provided all the physical activity we need!
And there you have it: living, working, and worshipping day-to-day, alongside the same community of people, like one big extended family. Yes, that’s an overstated example. But it talks to the heart of that which we are yearning for from your church communities: a daily shared life, like the one we learn about in the book of Acts; a life where the believers “had everything in common” and achieved daily, in their own homes.
The real reason we left the prepared church wasn’t because it wasn’t cool enough for us; there simply had not been enough community for all of us. Obviously, in today’s culture, we won’t be able to get all our separate circles to terme conseillé; but we can create as much overlap as it can be: to share meals, and resources, and stories, to share because our lives as possible, until we could finally living a daily shared life with other believers. Like one big, extended spiritual family.
1 MORE THOUGHT
As being a special bonus to this post, I want to reveal something else. With regards to creating genuine church community, I actually think Christians who’ve never known church community, outside of the organized church box often make the mistake of trying to build “church” before there’s any “community” to build upon.
Because the idea of simply suspending out with others who live nearby seems “unproductive” to the institutionalized Religious mind, many believers who leave the organized chapel eventually conclude alone. That they merely wait and expect for some kind of fully-formed church community to come and find them. But We would argue that kind of siloed Religious life is even less productive than a who trust who simple hangs away and has fellowship!