Seems like the Lord of the Rings video ran its course. I received some excellent suggestions tonight from one of the frequenters of this blog, restlesrolento, saying that I should link together some of my blogs. I will be working on that sometime this week.
In the meantime, I just posted some brief comments on my experience with community life beginning in my early 20s, followed by a one-page outline of chapter 19 in Rick Warren's PDL: Cultivating Community.
His point to ponder is that community requires commitment. I find that the current generation of 20-somethings crave community but resist making the commitment necessary for it to exist. Any thoughts?
Here is the link: Cultivating Community.
Joseph
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I was having an interesting conversation with someone yesterday about a topic that has been on my heart for the last few years. It was basically about our Community (The group followers that meets in Princeton, FL) and us as individuals “loosing our religion”. (That’s my title for this conversation) Many thoughts and questions arise in my mind when thinking about this.
I personally struggle A LOT with comparing my family to the many families that I grew up with in Ohio. (Especially blood relatives) I really hope I can get my point across.
There is a culture or atmosphere in the “Bible Belt/Covenant Church” families that I love and even sometimes long for in my family and in The Community. I love the pleasant, wholesome feeling that I get when spending time with those families and attending their churches. The majority of those people have this clear, look-you-straight-in-the-eyes, easy manner. They are a pleasure to be around and don’t drain you emotionally. They are warm and friendly.
More than anything, I admire the young children of these families. They are mature and obedient (at least in public). They sit quietly through 2 – 3 hour meetings. They don’t use bad words (probably b/c they’ve never heard one). They are a blessing to be around – not a burden.
Now, you take a group of people from The Community in Princeton and stick’em in with a bunch of Covenant Churchers – and what do you get? Something very different and a bit foreign. We are the ones that initiate the mass migrations to the Irish Pub, keep everyone up till all hours of the night, skip meetings and have drinking parties in our hotel rooms. Actually, the Petrie kids tend to help us out on this as well – maybe it’s an international thing.
Hmmmmmmmmm….
So, is there something wrong with us as followers of Christ? What do we do with the scriptures that mention “course talk”, “Whatever is pure and lovely”, “avoiding all appearance of evil”, etc? And by the way, I am NOT judging as I am one of the worst offenders. In the name of “not being religious” are we crossing the line? Are we playing with fire?
Or maybe, as nice and peaceful as it is, the Bible Belt culture is just one of the many different responses to the Gospel of Jesus. Maybe, each culture’s response to Jesus looks different - but the morals should still be the same.
Maybe we are different because we are composed mainly of members who have not grown up in Churches and were not taught to respond to life and people in the same way. But most of the leaders of the Covenant Church movement came from dysfunctional and unwholesome backgrounds.
The problem is that I (Sarah) don’t have complete peace about our Community’s cultural response to the gospel. But I don’t know why. That is what I’m trying to hash out. I don’t know if the discomfort is a spiritual “red flag” that the Holy Spirit is waving, or if it is a fearful response that comes from being conditioned to think in a certain (religious) way. I still don’t know if I am verbalizing what I’m truly feeling in my heart. Maybe it’s all relative. To those who have grown up outside the church, we are probably a haven of super wholesomeness.
I guess the question in my heart boils down to this: Is our “Community” and each of us as individuals truly living the way that Christ wants us to? And if so, why does it appear less wholesome and pure than other communities of followers that we have experienced?
I think there is a scripture in Corinthians that says we should NOT compare ourselves with others ... we should only consider if we are faithfully doing what God has called us to do.
Jimmy disagreed with me about the homeschooling issue (and if I am not mistaken, Jessy agreed from them same email address) but I think we were addressing different aspects of your original email. He was talking about finding peace within ourselves in community with others, while I was addressing your comparisons of yourself with the homeschooling families.
The cultural aspects of Miami versus Ohio of course are also a factor ... although perhaps not as big as we might think. There are subcultures in Columbus that are just as messed up or worse than anything we have in South Florida.
Laying aside comparisons, the real issue is are we doing what God wants us to do? Are we attempting to live in relationships with others ... in community.
I did an online "class" of sorts with Erwin McManus a while back. He noted that community is great but not the main thing. Jesus invited the disciples to a mission and they experienced community in the context of that mission. He pointed out that an invitation to community wouldn't have appealed at all to these burly guys, but that as they engaged in a world-changing mission with Jesus they experienced true community.
I think we get this backwards (at least in my United Methodist circles). Our focus is all about gathering people and we invite people to experience community with the hope of getting them to serve others later. Jesus' model was "disciple as you go."
There are a couple phenomenal YouTube videos of Michael Frost addressing missional issues with a group of Presbyterians. It is extremely challenging. If interested, see www.theforgottenways.org/blog
Also, for people living in radical community with the poor see www.thesimpleway.org or read Shane's book called "Ordinary Radicals"
I hope all this falls within the parameters of this blog, and I apologize if not or if this is ground you guys have already covered.
For my own rantings, see "Articles" in wwww.jesustribe.org
I look forward to continuing the dialog.
His,
don woolley
I agree with you don.. although we were discussing community in this thread, I personally am very much inclined to mission. I was aware of some of the Youtube video's with Frost but just have not yet had the time to go look at them. Christmas break is coming up.
There is a pretty amazing chart showing that over 50 percent of the residents of our county claim no religious affiliation...more than all Protestants, evnagelicals, Catholics and "other" combined.
thanks for your comment! Let's stay in touch.
joseph
Sarah,
I've pondered ur thoughts for some time, I decided to respond here instead of via email, mainly because I was feeling some knee jerk reactions so some people's responses, and I didn't want to provoke anyone the wrong way.
I admire your burden, and your willingness to be open about it in our community. I think a big thing to remember about the whole situation is this: where you live affects you the most. Another words, if you lived in Ohio you might see the atmosphere up there differently. The grass is always greener?
However you do raise a good point as far as us being trend setters. I think Jose hits the mark. We need to look inside and ask ourselves and God if we are in line with Him.
As far as conferences go....imho, why are you there? Is it to attend the meetings and participate in the purpose of those meetings? Or is it to go out drinking with friends? I don't think it is bad to go with some friends to the pub across the street, i think a big part of AMC (amongst others) is seeing and fellowshipping with friends that we don't get to see often. However, it is also about attending the meetings, and receiving knowledge. So maybe the balance has just tipped a little too far...
I do not however think that that means our community is "failing".
In response to the OP, I think that my generation doesn't know what commitment is. Like seriously. I know some about it because my parents modeled it for us kids. But look around, most of the Baby Boomers rejected a certain kind of commitment. As a result (I don't pretend to know or assume bc i wasn't there, but this is just my observations) most baby boomer parents either felt guilty in telling their children to do and not do things that they didn't uphold themselves, or just never were able to relay the information.
So Generation X had no grounds to start from in many ways.And the ones that did, had it yanked from under them over the years. Now that generation is having or has had kids, and aren't teaching them the value of commitment and even the meaning of it...mainly out of ignorance.
It's a perpetual circle unfortunately. But, the world Jose, John, and Sam grew up in is not the world my generation and the next are in. Commitment is almost extinct.
So I guess my question is: How to learn/teach commitment to my generation?
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