The Importance of Community

Back in 2010, I reviewed the second in James Bryan Smith's Good and Beautiful series. Recently, I had the opportunity to listen to an audiobook version of the third book, The Good and Beautiful Community. Most of my reactions about the process of the book were similar to the prior. Smith is a good, accessible writer, who makes abstract concepts easily understandable.

One of the big differences is that this book did seem to tread some new material in contrast to The Good and Beautiful Life. It still is rather introductory, especially for those who have read a lot in the area of the importance of community. But I have a feeling Smith was on the front edge of this movement, as this book was originally published in 2010.

First, my repeated criticisms are the stronger influence of the contemplative tradition on Smith's form of community building in addition to the reliance on spiritual disciplines. I've written about my view of the limitations of both before, so I won't rehash that. I think both are valuable, especially in community-building, so this isn't truly a bad thing; I would have just liked to see more options from the other of Foster's streams.

One of the elements I most appreciated was Smith's emphasis on the role of community as going through the faith journey together. And being humble. Smith spends an entire chapter exploring how to love those with whom we disagree. This is such an important topic that I often don't find adequately addressed in most discussion of community. I've discussed the topic before on my blog, but it's great to hear balanced efforts toward unity from a national leader. Smith was able to include anecdotes to illustrate his points well (as was helpful throughout the book), and in this section, the story was not just about actually being able to achieve unity. That's one of the things I found most helpful: This book is not about perfection. It's about how to live in an imperfect, fallen community, and how beautiful that is.

Some of Smith's arguments for the need for being in a faith community are a bit weak in my opinion, but he's never heavy-handed or forcing of his opinions. In fact, I experienced his sharing of his perspective as quite grace-filled in recognizing the various ways people approach and experience community. And this method reinforced his view all the more by practicing what he was preaching.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Priesthood of a Physical Church @KeithGiles

Keith Giles, an organic/house church advocate who offers all of his books for free electronically, recently released This is My Body: Ekklesia as God Intended. First off, this book is a very easy read. The way Giles separates the chapters makes it feel like you are moving the book quickly and easily.

The book itself is intended to examine a biblical basis for what the institutional church and worldwide Church should look like. Long story short, Giles provides a wonderful, well-thought-out argument for the priesthood of all believers in a way that is accessible to most people (rather than heavy theological language). He notes important implications for what that looks like institutionally, including the lack of hierarchy. One of my deep spiritual/ecclesiastical values is an egalitarian organization, so I really appreciate the many angles Giles approaches this, from the role of pastor to the relevance of a "spiritual covering." There are so many wonderful things he says that I could elaborate on, but that would take forever and probably be redundant with his work. :)

There were a couple of parts that I struggled with. At one point, Giles mentions that he so dislikes it when churches raise so much money to put into creating or buying buildings rather than going to people. His rationale for this is wonderful, and I agree. When I was an elder at The Gathering, we talked about ways to make sure all of our income would go back out, which is what Giles' community succeeds at.

At the same time, I can and have seen the value of larger communities (Giles argues for very small groups) and church campuses. I grew up in small church communities and am currently drawn to the philosophy of house/organic churches. At the same time, I have been a part of some very large congregations lately. Particularly as one has been in the news lately in part because of poor financial planning related to their building,  I have seen first-hand how much time, energy, and money goes into buying and maintaining church property. A lot of time, energy, and money that could go into people.

At the same time, my wife and I have come to appreciate the opportunities available with a larger congregation.  While a lot of money may flow into administrative and building costs, these communities provide a lot of services to the world around them that smaller groups could not do. While the churches themselves may spend less on administration and building if they were small and without a building, then other organizations and businesses would have to pick up the slack on service. This might not happen at all. When it does, it usually occurs with non-profits, who also will often rely on donations and have the same administrative and building costs as churches. They frequently have more, as churches can often more easily be staffed by volunteers. In the end, more money may reach people if the institutional church does the work and includes the overhead. I get and agree with Giles' philosophy, but practically, biblical times were quite different than modern times when it comes to interpersonal service.

Further, church buildings can be services in themselves. While I hate the waste of space many sanctuaries are, many well-planned buildings can and are used for many activities and offered to the community to use. Further, appropriately thought-out buildings can teach spiritual stories and inspire people to go out and serve more. Yes, it is difficult to watch tens of millions of dollars go into a new building when people are starving. Yet what is the cost if that new building becomes a refuge for people to relax and become rejuvenated to then go out and help those starving neighbors? While I am very much a utilitarian with many things, I have come to value the importance of space that is life-giving. I've been to more utilitarian church buildings and those that are intended to be a sanctuary. I am much more open to people after spending time in the latter.

The other part I struggled with was a section on women leaders. Giles argues for the equality of women in the church with some excellent arguments. But then he ends by stating, "However, the authority to rebuke or confront a believer caught in sin seems to rest on those male elders and overseers who were recognized as having a Fatherly position within the Body" (p. 142). This statement stood out in stark contrast to the rest of this section and his book, which all provided examples and support for his claims. While the complementarian/egalitarian debate was not really the issue here, this statement just seemed unsupported.

While I spent most of my time here on the parts I did not fully agree with, they were actually relatively minor parts of the book. For anyone interested in organic church models and thoughts on hierarchy in ecclesiology, I highly recommend this book.

Church as Celebration

Our new church community is trying to buy a building and the bank is making them do membership for that. In order to support them, we attended the class (membership would be another good topic for another time).

Last week, I talked about church as community and described how I felt more connected with others during non-large-group gatherings. Interestingly, the meeting addressed this (not my blog directly, of course...). One of the things said is that church is not just Sunday gatherings (y'all have heard me say that for a while). They really emphasized the importance of small groups and that that is where the community is experienced and built.

However, they also said Sundays are important, but not for community. They framed these gatherings are important for celebration. This is a new way of thinking about such gatherings for me. I really like this balance and think it makes a lot of sense. That helps me find those gatherings as being more valuable when I was getting close to giving up on such gatherings...

What do you think?

Church as Marriage

Expanding on yesterday's post of church as community, church also is like a marriage. In today's American society, we expect our marriages to satisfy all needs. They are the culmination of romantic ideals that come to fruition. We will not want after marrying the right person and waiting for that person to have sex with.

Well, look around, it doesn't work like that. Nor is it supposed to. Marriage is a partnership. A beautiful one, at that. However, it is not meant to satisfy all needs and definitely not all the time. One person simply cannot do that. We need community. We need other people to satisfy some needs. And that is not only okay, it is good.

I realized I have approached church organizations similarly. I expect the church (little "c" meaning the local organizations, big "C" meaning the universal Church body) to meet all my spiritual needs. Why would or could any human organization do that? Just as our life partners are not perfect, the church is imperfect.

It will meet many needs, but there will be areas where it is not a good match. And that is not only okay, but it is good. It is an opportunity for the church to push and challenge us and for us to push and challenge the church. My only hope is for the churches to be open to being pushed and challenged. This process is the key.

We also need to connect with the larger Church outside of our smaller church. This is another good reason for the churches to be imperfect. It leads us to connect to others. This allows for a cross-fertilization of ideas and worship. We need friends outside of our churches. This, too, will help push and challenge us as we also push and challenge others.

As is the purpose of this blog, that process will lead us closer and closer to Christ and Truth. It can be tiring. I can admit I long for a church in which I fit perfectly. It hasn't happened yet. It probably never will. And that's probably a good thing...

Church as Community

As my wife and I have explored entering a new church organization (to get to a local church community), we have reflected a lot on what church means and what needs get met in a church and what we really want in a church. I've posted a few times on this in the last few months. Here are some of my latest thoughts.

One of the things I knew but has been re-emphasized is that Sunday morning really is not all that important. True, the group worship "service" (I hate that word to describe the gatherings, though I use it myself--we are not "servicing" people or God--we are gathering to worship and commune) is important for bringing groups of Christians together. Without those gatherings, it is hard to join a new community.

However, beyond that, they're really becoming more of an obligation to me. I think this is because in most communities, this time is all focused on teaching, on information. I miss the worship, the communing with God, the experiential piece. Sure, there's music. Sure, there's prayer. That's not necessarily worship.

In fact, my wife and I have missed several weeks of Sunday gatherings. We sometimes will watch it online, but honestly, we don't feel like we miss much by missing. The announcements are the biggest thing we miss, and we can get those online.

Interestingly, a few weeks ago, we were late, so we sat in the Family Lounge so as not to enter the main sanctuary and interrupt anyone. There were only two other families there, and we had to watch the whole gathering on a TV screen (what's the difference between that and watching from home? I don't like going someplace only to watch a talking head on a screen.). However, it was probably my favorite Sunday yet. Why? Because it felt more like community as we smiled at the babies and their parents and actually felt like there was a connection between those around us. In contrast, on "normal" Sundays, when we go to the main sanctuary, I feel like I'm at the movie theater or a concert. I feel no connection to anyone else around me.

Community is important. THAT is the point of the large gatherings. Yet we suck at it.

That is why small group IS so important to us. I hate missing one. THAT feels more like church than anything else. As many people before me have said, that IS church because we ARE the church. We need to remember that. That living together and sharing each others' lives is so much more important than learning a nice lesson on a Scripture passage that you will forget an hour later.

Article Round-up

It's done! I took the EPPP this weekend. Now I have to wait for the scores... Interestingly, I'm more afraid of the shame of failing than having to study more and spend the money again (although I really don't want to do either of those). That could be an interesting topic for another time.

In any case, here's some articles I've found interesting over the last week or so.

Starting off with a devotional, Day 28 of Dr. Larry Crabb's Lenten devotionals is particularly good!

This is a great article on depression and the church and some of the weaknesses of the church in affecting depression.

Who Are the De-Churched. This is a REALLY good article. I feel quite similar to the relationally de-churched. It's stuff we've discussed a few times on this blog.

Elemental Preaching. This is a great article on the purpose of preaching written by my pastor from my time in Berkeley. He's a great guy with great ideas.

3 Lies the Church Tells About Sex. Pretty self-explanatory article. And VERY accurate, with significant implication.

Breaking Through Workaholism. I need to internalize several of these. :)

How (and How Not) to Bring Christ to Work. I like the Incarnational emphasis on this. Very relevant to other discussions on evangelism on this blog.

When It's Good to Get Mad. Another article with some topics that we've hit on here before.

Not-So-Imaginary Jesus @caReviewers

The next book I have reviewed for the christianaudio Reviewer's Program is Imaginary Jesus written and narrated by Matt Mikalatos. As should be obvious, I did receive a free copy from christianaudio in exchange for reviewing it. As followers of my blog know, my other reviews of their works have been less-than-stellar (I wish they'd choose other options for review because they have a lot of great texts, er audio). So this positive review should emphasize that this is not an over-inflated review due to getting a free audiobook. :)

Imaginary Jesus caught my eye due to the title and the synopsis. It looked creative and in my interest area because of the idea that we have constructed a Jesus in our minds that clouds the real Jesus. That is precisely what this book discusses, but not in such a bland and boring way as I just described it.

Mikalatos (who does an excellent job narrating--I particularly love when authors narrate their own works, especially when they are of such a personal nature) does a very creative job tackling (sometimes literally) his imaginary Jesuses, guiding us through his imagination in what many ways makes this book feel like a novel. I must say that about an hour or so into the book, I got a bit bored with the Jesuses, but this gave way to appreciation. Without these descriptions, the final chapters, which were more propositional (although not terribly explicit), would not have been as powerful. The chapter, "Holy Mother of God," was particularly moving, I thought. I don't want to give too much away because the process of moving through Mikalatos' imagination is part of the power of the book.

In many ways, this reminds me of the mystical texts that some of the saints used to describe their inward journey to meeting Christ. Mikalatos takes a more humorous approach. However, it is funny because it is terribly accurate (in particular, I loved the Secret Society of Imaginary Jesuses). He does an effective job of crafting a modern mystical experience that is at once both individually contemplative and communal.

Further, I realized toward the end of the book that this is a perfect example of describing God image. This refers to the construction of God we have created and with which we interact. It's a natural psychological phenomenon everyone does with anyone with whom we relate. It can be a hard concept to understand, but this book makes it much more understandable.

In sum, I highly recommend this book. I'm not sure how it would be in written form, but the audiobook is excellent. In many ways, I the audiobook may be better if for no other reason than the author reads it himself. That conveys a message no written text ever could.