Community Part 3

The disciples had everything in common. They were in fellowship together.  Fellowship is a weird word.  Think about the passage with me for a minute - when we talk about having all things in common, that doesn’t mean that members of the early church could walk into Peter’s house and say, “Hey the Lord has need of your television.  Give it to me because we have all things in common.” No. I don’t think that’s exactly what this means. I think they had something in common that tied everything together. What was that? That was Jesus.  Of course, this is the easy answer, but this is what pulled them together. This is what held the early church together.

Paul, the apostle, begins to develop the concept of fellowship with regard to the Lord’s Supper. The idea of fellowship, having things in common, can be translated in many different ways.  For example, the participating in, the sharing in, or being together.  The idea that something holds us together, that we participate in something, that we are in fellowship the very thing we have in common is clear in Paul’s writing.  In 1 Corinthians chapter 10:16  Paul states, Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks, a participation, a sharing in, a fellowship in the blood of Christ. Is not the bread we break, a participation, a sharing in the body of Christ because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake in one loaf.  What pulls us into oneness? This participation, this sharing in Christ death and resurrection. The apostle John loves this word fellowship and uses it to glue his letters together. In 1 John 1:7 John says: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship. We have a participation with one another and the blood of Jesus, his Son purifies us from all our sin.”

If we walk with Jesus, we have a relationship with each other. We share in his journey. Walking together is a togetherness journey towards Jesus and with Jesus.  In the same passage John says, we proclaim to you, being the apostles, what we have seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. Knowing Jesus allows us all to have relationship where there was no relationship - so that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and his son Jesus Christ we write this to make our joy complete. John is saying, we have fellowship with Jesus, and we are telling you about Jesus so that the barrier between you and us, between God and you can be broken. We can journey together with Jesus who makes all things right. The resurrection is what makes us community together, so there has to be a response to this. 

Community Part 2

From the being of time, humanity has been trying to fix itself.   Humans are trying to make things right in the different communities that they have destroyed. Environmentalists try desperately to reconcile the environment. Animal rights activists try to reconcile the animal kingdom to the human kingdom.  Psychologists try to reconcile man to each other. Ultimately, humankind is on a quest to reconcile itself to God.

What we don’t realize is that God is the only one who can reconcile man to Himself.  If you read the New Testament, you will quickly see that the early church believed that God did reconcile the world to himself in the person of Jesus.  The narrative goes something like this: God sends his son Jesus to earth as a man, fully man and fully God, to die on the cross for our sins; to make right what was made wrong. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and he went home to prepare a place for us.   One of the interesting things about this narrative is that Jesus doesn’t choose Rambo to pass on his story and its reconciling power.  He passes the baton to the disciples - these 12 men who followed him for at least three years. He passes it on to a community, and he entrusts this group of men to move the gospel forward.

If you look at the gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the New Testament, in particular John 13:34, you get this small indication of what Jesus thought about how this gospel was going to go forward. In verse 34 he says “A new command I give unto you, love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this shall all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

How are people going to know Jesu? They are going to know Jesus and know you as followers of Him by the way you interact with each other and the way you interact in community. Community is an interesting word. If God is entrusting us the church, the ecclesia, the community, with the gospel, with this reconciliation, this offering of Jesus’ victories to the world so they can be reconciled to God so they can be made right, so they can have perfect relationships with God. What is this word community because community is not in the bible? There idea of community is prevalent within the New Testament and the Old Testament but the word itself does not exist, so what is community?

To have community, you have to have something in common. Think about it in basketball terms. There are a bunch of guys who like basketball so they have the game of basketball in common.  Most likely, they will play basketball together, or at least they will watch basketball. There are two parts to community. First, what we have in common, and second, the response to what we have in common.

It might sound kind of silly to ask, what does the church have in common? What does the community of faith - followers of Jesus - have in common with itself? That should be obvious in the name - Jesus is who we have in common, but do we truly grasp the depth of this statement?

If we have Jesus in common, how should we respond to him?  Acts chapter two verses 38 through 47 offer us a look into how the early church responded to Jesus as a community. Leading up to verse 38, Jesus has given his disciples the command to go preach the gospel to all nations. He has handed off the baton to 120 people who are his close followers. They are waiting, in an upper room of some unnamed building, for the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised he would send them - the one who was going to help them talk about the gospel.

The Spirit of God shows up in the upper room.  Everyone who was gathered together began to speak many different languages, and they probably didn’t have soundproof walls!  So everybody outside heard it, and they think. “Man, there is a big gigantic party going on in there and everybody’s drunk.” Peter realizes this. He dashes out onto the balcony and he says, “No, we are not drunk” and he preaches the gospel. At the end of his talk, it says, with many other words he warned them and he pleaded with them save yourself from this corrupt generation. Those who have accepted this message were baptized and about 3000 were added to their number that day, so the first church was planted.

Acts is about the being of the early church. Peter oversees the first church being planted after Jesus ascends into heaven - 3000 members.  Peter is the forerunner to Billy Graham.

If you continue to read chapter two, you discover how the early church responded to Jesus. Starting at Verse 42 it states, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Stowing their possessions and goods, they gave to everyone as they had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved.

6 Reasons Why Most Churches shouldn't push past the 200 person Attendance Mark

1. Pastoral Care is important. 
Being a pastor is a lost art.  No, pastors don't need to be at every party, at every hospital stay, every birthday or funeral, but they do need to be knee deep in the manure of their community.  Life is messy and it takes time.  The point of being a pastor is not to free up your time so you can manage and administrate better - healing happens one person at a time.

2. Strategic Planning is not the point
The larger you get, the more strategic you become.  People's stories become a means to an end instead of the point.   Yes, the church is an organization, and it should be organized and the mission should be clear and the question of how something is going to be a accomplished is important.  But, Holiness is much more substantial than a few more buts in the seats.

3. Developing leaders is a tricky art that takes a long time, and it is prone to failure
Jesus took 3 years to develop his leaders, and I suspect he spent time with them before the three years we have recorded in the Gospels. 

4. Volunteers need the opportunity to mess things up
Excellence is not what the church is about.  Yes, we need to do things well, but if we are hindered by quality control, we will never give people the opportunity to learn through practice.

5. A church ruled by small groups is dangerous!
Yes, small groups are important in the life of the church, but they are not the answer to all the church's problems.  They are not a substitute for pastoral care, and they are not what gives you church a better sense of community.  Discipleship, life on life irritation, is best served over coffee over many weeks.

6. Your analytics change for the worse 
The way you understand success changes as you get bigger.  There is a point when people take a back seat to a hyper focus on the implementation of the mission for each event.

 

The Myth of Endless Energy

To all those type "A" people.  To the ones who get a lot more done than the rest of us.  To all wide-eyed hopeful people of industry.  I tip my glass, and then I take a nap.  Sleepy.

I wonder often . . . Were we all so anxious 100 years ago?  I wonder often . . . How do I rise and build?  How do I bend my back and lean into all that I've been called to?  How do I work with purpose?  How does one build the kingdom?

Fight.  Fight for my wife, kids, and church.  The Enemy plots against us.  He despises God, but we must stand our ground.  The horn must be blown.  The Enemy is on our door step.  The Father - our God - is our shield and spear.  We fight for our families with the weapons of our God.  Oh God, be our shield and spear.

Jesus help us make it through the night.  At the cross we sit.  Hopeful for your return.  Hopeful for your relief.  God is our refuge.  Fear is as high as mountains, but a river flows to our mouths.  Stillness is all I have.  The Spirit of God stands with me.  The weight of life is relieved in the city.  The strength of God is under my right and left arm.  The Kingdom will not fall.  The Stream.  It makes me Glad.  It will not fall.

Our hearts must meet God.  No more hiding.  A full accounting of our secret idols must be proclaim.  But God's words are often met with resistance and emptiness.  Show us the ancient ways.  Meet us at the cross roads.  At the cross roads our walls fall and the good way is revealed.  Look, Ask, and Walk . .  for you will find rest for your soul.

A Tribute to my Brother

The Candyman. The chocolate dictator. Ruler of Cobra Commander.

Memories - long hours of building - forts, traps, and weapons. The many uses for duck tape, handcuffs, scorpions. We stood side by side against the tyranny of the desert. We rode our bikes and dug deep into the sand. Underground, we dreamed of worlds that our tire swing could take us.

Music man. Night dweller. Poet and friend. We are not the droids . . . Benji, Benji, Park. The Seattle experience. Great cigarette pics.

Father. Husband. Beautiful family. God seeker. Lover of wife. Rental King. The man of a deal. Provider for the down trodden. Follower of Jesus . . . Gospel man.

Happy Birthday Joel

Eric

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A Quick Paragraph or Two

The Gospel is the word Evangelion in the greek. It means good news or victories. The gospel of a particular roman general is simply the story of his Victories or at least the good news he brings back from the front lines. When Jesus followers talk about the Gospel, they are referring to the victories and good news of Jesus. My community, the Village, is at the beginning of a study exploring the different aspects of the Gospel. Most recently, we have been looking at Jesus' story in light of John 1:1-18.

John tells Jesus' story upfront before he even begins his Gospel. Jesus, or the word, was in the beginning. He created everything. He was the light of the world. We reject the Light. He conquers darkness and offers us an opportunity to be made into the children of God - if we are willing to receive and believe Him. The Ancients gave us laws to obey. Jesus came and gave us the gift of life and truth. He came and took up residence with us. If we see and experience him - we have experienced the Father.

This simple story is so powerful and life transforming - as a person who is sure he can't get it right - I find Jesus' story freeing. The rules, the getting it right, the performance, and the darkness of my life are all taken away by Jesus' Story.