When we think about mission trips, we offer want to go and build churches. Perhaps we’re going to build the wrong type of churches. Perhaps rather than building a church building we should be building “real church” that’s based on relationships and friendships that last forever.
I’m working my way through the latest from Brian McLaren. Here’s some greatness from the chapter, “missional practices.” In thoughts about who we are as Christ-followers in the context of the body, he writes:
I’m assuming that this whole thing is not about me. I’m assuming that the community of faith doesn’t exist for me. I’m assuming that my own contemplative practices aren’t ultimately about me. I’m assuming that maturity as a spiritual human being isn’t complete unless it sends me out of myself into the faith community. But it’s not simply about “us” either – in the sense of our church, denomination, or religion. No, I’m assuming that the faith community isn’t complete unless it, in turn, is sent outside of itself into the world with saving love.
McLaren unites 3 parts of following Christ into a trinity-like approach. I, personally follow Christ in a contemplative way. My walk is united with others in the walk to follow Him in a communal way. There, my contemplative walk meshes withthe communal walk of others for the intent of a missional way. This missional way takes “us” outside ofourselves to live out the gospelin inlayin down our lives for others.
wow.
Last Sunday we peeked into a passage of Scripture that says something of who we are as followers of Christ. 1 Peter 2:9 says that we are part of a royal priesthood. Priesthood is not something we experientially know much about. During the month of August, we’ll take a look at what a priest was in the OT, how Jesus became the ultimate Priest and what it means that we are all part of a priesthood today.
The series will challenge us with a fresh look at how we relate to God and to one another. I believe it will forever change our view of who the church is in this day and how we live out our faith. We are priests and priests together – we are priests in the hood.
What a great time yesterday morning!
I keep hearing more and more reports from folks who said they really enjoyed their get togethers which came in all sizes. I think the smallest group was 4 or 5 and the largest group had over 20. At least 100 people participated in encounter goes living room and I think everyone who participated was impacted in some way.
For those of you who missed out… or would just like to watch it again… here’s the video from the DVD we watched ::
encounter goes living room from Jonathan Blundell on Vimeo.
Along with the video, each group discussed the following questions ::
I’d love to hear see some thoughts, reflections, follow-up from everyone involved. Let us know what you liked, didn’t like and/or what you were challenged by.
And for those who couldn’t make it – feel free to watch the video, read the questions and share your own answers and thoughts.
Thanks again to all the host homes and leaders who made yesterday possible! You all did a great job!
With 5 kids there’s already a pretty steady flow of activity at our house. We’ve become used to the ever-growing amount of activity that comes with them having friends over, Wednesday night momentum, having other families over etc.
This past week on one of the nights, we had 3 other kids over. So when it came time to sit down to dinner there were 10 people at the table. As you can imagine, the exchange was lively. After a while, I noticed that one of the kids was sitting in awe and just watching all that was happening. In his home, its just him and his sister. He wasn’t used to all this.
It hit him again after dinner. I had prepared a chore list for everyone and asked them to come pick which one they would do. He thought he would choose a safe one – take the trash cans out to the road. At his house it was a short walk with one trash can. He was again shocked when he walked out and saw 6 cans overflowing with trash. He came back in and told us his story and we all enjoyed a good laugh.
So life goes on. Most nights I quietly slip off to go to bed while our kids and their friendsplay ping pong in the garage, x-box in Briana’s room, and watch movies in the living room.
Its a far cry different than my life growing up as an only child.
