Friday, August 18, 2006

What Defines Us?

Michael Frost opens the twelfth chapter of his book, Exiles, with the following paragraph.

"In the work that I do around the world with missional churches I am regularly asked about how exiles should worship. Even after I've told about the exciting experience of creating communitas, fashioning missional communities, eating together, living compassionately, serving the poor, and honoring our work as sacred activity, someone still wants to know what a missional church worship service would look like. In fact, barely a week goes by when someone doesn't contact me and ask to come and 'check out' our community, smallboatbigsea. This request is always followed by the next question: 'What day and time do you meet?' What assumption lies behind such a request? Answer: that we are primarily defined by a weekly meeting, and that if you attend that meeting, you can see all you need to see to get an understanding of our community."

That last sentence, ..."we are primarily defined by a weekly meeting, and that if you attend that meeting, you can see all you need to see to get an understanding of our community", speaks volumes about western Christianity.
It becomes quite obvious that western Christianity is very shallow when the primary focus is on a weekly "church service." It reveals an almost total lack of understanding concerning biblical community. That lack of understanding reveals the lack of biblical community. The church has little or nothing to offer to a world that is starving for true community.
Frost goes on to say that any "genuinely missional community operates at multiple levels and different times, as any organic, dynamic web of relationships would." He then poses these two questions: "Why can't we think of churching together as a web of relationships? Why are we obsessed with the singular event rather than seeking the rythm of a community churching together?"

Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?