"Church is a full-time occupation, not the weekly attendance of a performance. Church isn't the sort of thing you can go to. You can be the church, you can become the church, you can even do church, but you can't go to church. ... One way of saying it is that church is the sort of thing that you become part of. You're the church whenever you're with other Christians in such a way that you depend on each other, love each other, serve each other, and speak the truth to each other in love for the sake of Jesus."
"Our task is to find ways to become the church together. I suggest that becoming the church is rather like becoming a baseball team. Players have to practice together enough to learn each others strengths and weaknesses. Then they can use each others strengths and play around each others weaknesses. They sort out who can pitch, who can field, who can bat, who can coach. In the process, they learn to rely on each other, team sprit 'arises,' and somewhere along the way, rather mysteriously, they cease being just a collection of individuals and a group identity appears. They become a team. They become the Cubs." (lol! Sounds like John is channeling Bob Appleby here, except that I suspect he was already doing the sports metaphors before he met Bob. Those two were like two peas in a pod.)
He then goes on to explain that he's not talking about just making Sunday morning services more participatory. He says, " Services are important, but church is mostly crying with your brother in Christ when he learns that his son is disabled. Or helping your sister paint her house while talking together about the way, the truth, and the life."
John makes three points about what he calls "reinventing church":
1) Church is something you do or become or be, not something you go to.
2) It's crucial to identify people's strengths and weaknesses within the body and then each person should play their position -- do what they're good at.
3) "God intends us to be part of team, part of a body."
4) "In neither baseball nor church is a building crucial.
To sum up, "In both [baseball and being a church], it's more of a process than an event. In both, it's a matter of spirit. In both, the way it happens is rather mysterious. In both, coaching is crucial. In both, not recognizing your need for others is disastrous. In both, there's a place for observing, but it's for people not on the team, for nonChristians, for outsiders."
yes, yes, yes!!!
ReplyDeletebeing church is really not particularly about the stuff we do when we're gathered together for the sunday service.
and I love that bit about learning one another's strengths and weaknesses so that we can figure out what each person can do, what role we'd be best at - not knocking each other for not being good at something, but saying: you're good at X, let's put you on that rota/in that team/etc. I think so often people get into a role that isn't best for them and that actually gets in the way of their doing what they could actually do well - I remember back home when I got roped in to be part of the translation team, sitting with earphones in a corner during the meeting and translating into English for those who didn't know Hebrew. I was asked to do that because I'm fluent at both languages, but actually doing that sort of thing was not what I'm gifted for and I found it very stressful. Which, in turn, meant that at the end of the meeting I was too exhausted to be able to spend time listening to people one-to-one, which is what I really am gifted for. (and yes, I realise I've brought an example of something that happens at the weekly meeting, having just agreed with this guy that being church isn't necessarily about that...)
but i think that's part of it.
ReplyDeleteif i were put in charge of greeting people on sunday mornings, then everyone in the congregation would eventually decide that i'm stiff and unapproachable (because i hate doing greeting type things) and before you know it i'd have no interaction with anyone outside of sundays either because everyone would feel like i'm just an uncomfortable, strange turd of a person.
yes! absolutely! if you're stuck doing something you're totally uncomfortable doing, and people always see you at your worst, then it will affect how they relate to you in whichever context they see you.
ReplyDeleteit reminds me of a course I was on - it was a morning thing, and I'm totally not a morning person, I was completely out of my comfort zone and whenever we had a break I'd rush to grab a coffee and escape with it outside to get some caffeine and some solitude so that I could somehow stay awake through the next session. my interview with the course leaders at the end was... interesting :( I mean, they formed quite a warped view of what I'm like as a person. I remember actually being asked in that interview: do you have friends? in a tone of voice that told me they had me down as weird and antisocial. (well, ok, weird is true...)
...and the winner of the understatement of the year award is...
ReplyDeletelol!