Tuesday, March 4, 2008

connected in community


where are you connecting for community? where can you let your 'hair down' and just be you?

cool thing about tuesday nights is the way that a bunch of different kinds of people connect, have coffee, pray, eat sandwiches, study the bible, laugh, and stay connected. it's cool because people can just be people. 
as i was hanging out with adriana, a couple of thoughts came to mind - especially as i was thinking of community and how we do it today and how it was done in the book of acts. 

that first group of leaders and original group of emerging leaders had no idea that what they were doing would change the world. they were simply 'being' and 'doing' instead of being so technical or precise. 

so a couple of things from these 1st generation leaders and groups:
-they spent time together (lots of time)
-they spent time eating together (lots of time)
-they spent time not in a church building, rather among the 'normal' people (lots of time)
-they prayed (lots of prayer)
-they devoted themselves to the things that were most important (do we?)

so...i wonder if we over complicate things. do we distort and over kill the simplicity of simply doing life with others? is there something more needed than a bible, people, a cup of coffee and God?

what do you think? 

what can we learn from the 1st gen. leaders and groups? 

in your opinion, what do you think we should be most devoted to doing?

3 comments:

Anne Marie said...

i am finding, more and more, that it is the people of God that are the church. and the church, thank God, is not a building. it is moving, breathing, active and everywhere. where there are followers of Jesus in community, there is church. it is such a beautiful thing to behold. i do believe that we should all go to church (the building) and serve as a part of it, but woe to him that only does that spiritual discipline and neglects the many others. disciplines like fellowship, solitude, celebration, fasting, and study! a relationship with the Lord that has all those aspects is what He asks of us. and it is SO out of this world.

Anonymous said...

I suppose there needs to be a balance.

Here's another blog that I thought somewhat related to your post...
http://abeautifulcollision.blogspot.com/2008/03/mark-driscol.html

:-)

stephsharpe said...

I think one main thing you said was that they spent their time with the 'normal' people. They didn't stay among their groups the whole time. They were together most of the time, but when they were with the normal people they were in groups with 'normal' people. They didn't expect the 'normal' people to come to them, they went to them. They went into the synagogues for the jews and then some went to other regions, countries where nonbelievers, like the philosophers in Athens, hung out. They went where the people were, they didn't stay in the church building expecting people to come to them.