Community

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All shapes and sizes

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All shapes and sizes

Every time I think I’ve seen everything in church I get surprised. And last Sunday it happened again. 

We were visiting good friends of ours who are leading a brand new church in northern Indiana. It turns out almost every last person in the fellowship grew up in the Amish. Some had barely traded in their horse and buggy.

Even within the Amish, there are lots of differences. You’ll often find a lot of legalism and not much true understanding of the Gospel. Yet, as you can imagine, there is a great sense of community and shared values. Many of these folk left the Amish because they had come to Christ. We heard one moving testimony from a young man, who had experienced the Rumspringa, the rite of passage where teenagers are allowed to run wild for a year and do anything they want (that's why, as we found out living on a rural Michigan highway, you can hear the boomboxes resonating as the buggies go past at 3 am on a Saturday morning).

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Church or crowd?

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Church or crowd?

There are two types of congregation, in my admittedly simplistic definition, and the best way of differentiating between them is by asking a simple question: is this a church or is this a crowd? 

The difference between church and crowd is summed up in one word: discipleship. 

This was on my mind this week as I attended a dinner honouring a number of men who had been through a discipleship programme run by the church we are working with this winter. They have run this course for the last thirteen years. A lot of men have been through it, and it has had a deep impact on the life of the congregation (and before I proceed further, let me make it clear women are disciples also!).

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Are we wasting older believers?

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Are we wasting older believers?

Of all the unwise practices that can be found in churches, one strikes me as particularly foolish. And before I start, please don’t think I have an axe to grind.

It’s how we treat older believers. And yes, I admit I am not as young as I used to be. But I think I have been fairly consistent on this issue for many years. 

Psalm 71 gives the story of an aged believer who is persecuted by unknown opponents on account of his godliness. Instead of the honour they should have given them, they are seeking to take advantage of some unstated misfortune in his life to rid the earth of him.

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The path to kingdom advance

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The path to kingdom advance

Whiplash is one way of describing it.

We spent five busy weeks in a very crowded England, where there is never enough space for anything. Driving, parking, shopping, living - you name it, there’s not enough space for it. We spent the last ten days with friends who live not more than a hundred feet from a very busy motorway (interstate). Arriving back at Toronto airport, space suddenly reappeared. Wide roads, stores with acres of parking, space everywhere. And after four brief days at home, we found ourselves in our new accommodations in Michigan. Again we are perched on the edge of a highway. But as we looked out the window in the morning, the first traffic to appear was an Amish buggy.

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The unexpected value of friendship

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The unexpected value of friendship

Today I met with two very good friends. The meeting had a point. Both of these men are committed to helping us practically in our mission to extend the kingdom in the way we feel God is calling us to do. We are not on the same leadership team, or even part of the same church. Our link is simply the personal relationship our friendship in Christ has given us. That friendship led these men to place their creative resources at our disposal, for which we are extremely grateful. In fact, God has given us friends all over the place, each of whom has helped us in various ways, and without whom we could do little or nothing.

Church often works on the basis of organization. We do a job assigned to us within an organizational framework, and access resources that are provided to us by that framework. Without the organization, however, we are lost. I don’t think that’s right. I think church should operate on the basis of friendship, not function. Function isn’t wrong, but it should flow out of friendship.