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| A Good Read; What I pray doesn't happen | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 2 2008, 01:19 PM (285 Views) | |
| lornemac45 | Jul 2 2008, 01:19 PM Post #1 |
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This was on a blog; This morning I’ve spent some time thinking and praying about what will and can happen at church tonight. Over the past few weeks I’ve talked with a few people from church who have felt a strong feeling of disconnectedness with the church. This seems to be feelings that they feel as well as perceiving these feelings in others. I’ve noticed this for a while, and have felt it a bit myself, so tonight I want to talk about it. It would be easier to not talk about it and wait it out, but I don’t think that that is the best thing for us. This morning I’ve been trying to think of specific things that could have led us to the place we are at. My hope is that our conversation tonight will allow people to feel the freedom to openly share their opinions without the need to pull back and deny any feelings that might be going on. I thought that I might put a few thoughts down as to what has brought this disconnect into our church, and then maybe offer some thoughts as to what it might take to change. My first inclination is to say that people, in general, don’t have the sense of ownership that they once had. I wonder if people have lost the feeling that they can make a difference, or that they are an active, vital, important part of church life? The sense of ownership (I would not limit “sense” to mean simply a feeling but the understanding of ownership.) is hugely important to the life of a house church. Without communal involvement we can easily become the type of church that we do not want to be– the church where people come and sit and sponge off of what’s around them. I think that this loss of sense of ownership has come from two particular things. First, and maybe most significant, is that with a small group of people any shift in numbers is felt in a significant way. Over the past few months we have had substantial changes in the number of people who have been with us. In December a few people, who were very involved, moved on from our church. Their leaving has left a vacancy with us because of their emotional, honest personalities. In the past few months that have followed a few other people have been a bit hit or miss on Sunday nights. It has felt as if we are a different group of people each week, and I believe that this make a big difference in our approach to what we once called community. Second, I wonder if the function of the church is no longer meeting the primary need of the peope who are a part of it– community. Community was a vital part of why people joined us on Sunday nights, as the change in people has happened people have pulled back and the sense of community is now held up by a very fragile foundation. It feels as though our meetings on Sunday nights have been, for some, the mandatory “I have to go to church this week, so here I am.” This, of course, is not what we set our to become a year ago. We never wanted to become something that people felt the obligation to “attend.” We never wanted to have the gatherings on Sunday nights to be something to check off of a list. But I wonder if this is what it has become to some people. I can admit that there have been weeks where I have gone begrudgingly, and I expect that we all can say that that’s been the case a time or two. But obligation alone does not create community. Community needs intentionality. The “now what?” question lurks overhead, and I feel the need to address it. The easy answer is to ignore it and hope that all of this goes away. In reality, it wont work like that. This question is not one that I can answer alone. The answer cannot be made by a few for everyone, either. Each person needs to answer it for themselves. As for me, I have been thinking about the question “Who do I want to become?” rather than “What do I want to do?” This seems to be a significant question for me right now. What are the characteristics of the man I want to be, not how do I want to live day to day. I this question has particular importance for where we currently are as a church. Asking the question about what we want to do will lead us to answer the question with program type answers: Study this particular book of the Bible, spend this night of the month praying together, or eating together, or singing together. However, asking the question about who we want to become will lead to answers like: generous, caring, holy, sacrificial. These characteristic will shape what we do. We will visit the sick because we are caring, not because it is the week to do that. We will share with others what we have because we are generous, not because we’ve organized to do it. We will confess our sins and turn from unholy things because we know that that is God’s desire for us, not simply because we are talking about on a particular evening. The question of who we want to become moves us away from becoming religious and closer to becoming the church who recognizes God’s leading, yields to God’s voice, and pursues godliness. And that is the type of church I want to be a part of. I’ll let you know how tonight goes. I’m looking forward to it. peace |
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10:31 AM Jul 11