in the contemporary church but I got to see these past few days…and to me they were beautiful.

1) 75 or so people gathered to worship on a Friday morning on a non-holiday.

2) A couple of hundred people sitting and talking at a potluck on a Thursday night until well after 9pm – kids included. Even as I watched people leave, the exits were at a cost. You could see that people enjoyed time together and really could just sit and keep enjoying this space together.

3) An older pastor/priest (in his 70′s I guess) given space to participate in leading the worship gathering. His steps to the lectern were slower than they probably once were. His hands were a bit shaky. You could see that keeping his place in delivering the text took effort, again much more than it once did and at times as he sang the scriptures his voice wavered and cracked. BUT, as he chanted the gospels, no one thought any less of him. I would argue they thought more. It was beautiful to see this aged man walk with measured steps but with peace and purpose. Though I don’t know his whole story, he obviously has a rich one. His gifts of service and love have one him respect and honor in this community of believers. It is apparent that he has given much for them and the the community loves him. He was honored by the unwavering attention of the audience and we were honored to have such a beautiful servant of God be part of leading us in the liturgy.

4) A father teaching his son how to sing/chant in the liturgy. They stood at the front left of the worship gathering and every time that the father played a part in leading us through the liturgy he pointed or signaled to his son…teaching him what was going on. Mentoring at it’s best – brilliant. This father and son are both learning amazing lessons here as are we for getting to witness this.

5) Older women speaking into younger ones. In this community of believers I have now on three separate occasions in the past week seen older women take the time to stop or sit and talk to my daughter, Aubrey. They’ve answered questions or explained things to her. This paired with #4 has shown me how much I miss being part of a multigenerational community of believers. Many of our pop churches are missing out on these mentoring opportunities because we either a) don’t have older generations in our churches or b) have the generations segregated the vast majority of the time.

Thank you Lord for these treasures!

Something that church leaders know but I’ve never heard discussed is the pastoring of hybrid Christians. What I mean by this is that in our world teaching and theology are “in the cloud”. At any given moment I can listen or watch a sermon, podcast, lecture, debate, teaching, discussion, etc. by any leader that I am drawn to. I can download a book, article or go to a post online in a heart beat. I can engage in discussions about any of these by various mediums – all outside of a community of believers.

So as people assimilate more and more of these fragments or pieces of theology, it is my contention they become hybrid Christians. I would say that most, but not all, Christian people that I talk to these days are not strictly Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian…they are hybrid. They simply do not fit into one tribe. They carry bits of teaching from the flavor of the month or from a leader who really communicates in a way that speaks to them.

So what does this mean for us in pastoring people and communities?

What does it mean when we still often stand up & teach on the weekend as if we are the lone or most important voice in a persons spiritual journey?

How do we protect those entrusted to our care?

How do we enter the conversation or facilitate it?

Do we use others as the teacher in our communities and just play off of or work off of their teaching?

Is there a danger to so much being assimilated individually outside of communal presence? (I ask this question because I believe there is a certain amount of damage that happens because the Bible is often read and interpreted individually – especially those letters or documents that were written to groups/churches. We often take communal statements & make them personal or miss the emotion or the tension intended by the author in a community reading.)

What do you think?

Two ideas that have stirred me this week…

We come to receive the Eucharist not just to receive but knowing that we are to take back to our communities what Christ has given us and shown us in meeting him in the Eucharist.

and…

When one of us is poor we all suffer; when one of us is rich we are all blessed. This is the interconnected community of Christ. A community that takes on the pain of those in its midst who are hurting and shares what it has to help those who are in need.

The first moved me because this is a sentiment that I have read and often expressed in leading groups through the Eucharist…but have seldom heard elsewhere. The Eucharist (or communion, Lord’s supper, etc.) it seems to me in most evangelical churches has simply come to be about me recognizing what was done for me. I am the focus. I am the center – not Christ and this is missing the point.

The second moved me because it is an idea that I have read. It is an idea that I believe the scriptures teach, but until Monday night I had never heard another pastor express. It moved me to tears. Blessed to be a blessing…that’s what we are and we each bare the burdons of those in our communities as we likewise revel in their joy. We are attached to each other but our fear, greed or other delusions help us to build protective walls. We convince ourselves that we aren’t attached but in reality we are. Every decision affecting those around us in ways we are often unwilling to see but the effects are there. Much like Dr. King’s picture of people being bound in an interconnected inextricable garment of destiny. We are attached and need each other. We must honor our connectedness to really be the communities of peace, hope and redemption that Christ calls us to be.

This week I’m praying to live these ideas out – not just talk about them.

Peace ~