The Assembling of the Church

I haven’t written about our friends in “the Neighborhood” lately. We met Mrs. W  in the neighborhood almost two years ago. At first, we had a hard time talking to her. It wasn’t that she was mean or anything, but she just wasn’t very talkative. Eventually, though, after visiting with her week after week for over a year, she started talking to us. She tells us about her life growing up around Wake Forest and about her family.

But, in all the times that we’ve visited her, she would never let us do anything for her. Even when we raked leaves for other neighbors, she said that she wanted to rake her own leaves. And, that was cool, because she likes to be outdoors and that’s about the only exercise she gets.

Just before Christmas, she mentioned that she was having a hard time cleaning her apartment. Her family had been helping her, but they didn’t clean like she wanted. She never asked us to clean her apartment, but one afternoon Margaret (my wife), Miranda (my daughter), and another lady cleaned her apartment. (see my post “Wednesday Afternoon Worship Service“)

Last Saturday, when we were talking to Mrs. W, Margaret didn’t even ask if she wanted her apartment cleaned again. She simply told Mrs. W that she wanted to clean her apartment again. The next day, Margaret asked if anyone would like to help her clean Mrs. W’s apartment.

So, this morning, Margaret, Miranda, three other ladies, and one of their daughters cleaned Mrs. W’s apartment again.

I appreciate their example of working together to serve others!

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If we read the narrative of Scripture as a whole (Old Testament and New Testament), we’ll see examples of God’s people gathering together and examples of God’s people going out.

I’ve been wondering lately, where should our focus be? Obviously, both gathering and going are important to the individual follower Jesus Christ and to the church. I agree with the Anabaptists that every disciple is both an ordained missionary and an ordained minister (servant).

But, should one (gathering or going) have a higher priority in our lives? Should this focus be different individually than corporately (as a group)? How would we (individually and corporately) demonstrate this priority?

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Recently, I was talking with some brothers who are part of Messiah Baptist Church. If you didn’t know, I’m one of the elders (pastors, if you prefer) of this group of believers. We’ve been meeting together for several years now, and our meetings and our interactions today look much different than they did when we first started meeting together.

As we talked about this, I told the guys that it was exciting to see what had happened in the last few years. If someone had asked me then what I would want the church to “look like” today, I probably would have described some things that are happening now, and other things that are not happening now.

But, “back then”, I decided not to push my agenda, even if some wanted me to push – and as tempting as that was. Instead, I taught and modeled and served and let God do the work of changing people. I didn’t want this to be my church.

I told my brothers that I think God has done a better job of growing his church than I would have done growing my church.

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Guy from “The M Blog” has given us a glimpse inside simple churches in Guayaquil, Ecuador in a post called “No Hay Paredes: Las caras, escenas y vida de las iglesias en Casa en Guayaquil.” Church life doesn’t get much more beautiful than that!

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This quote is from Dave Black’s blog this morning (Sunday, December 20, 9:38 a.m.):

Perhaps our churches need to reconsider why we do mission trips. Yes, as individuals we must be responsive to the needs around us. But the primary locus of God’s activity in the world today is the local church, not the denomination or the association or the seminary or the missionary organization. Here is a point I would like to make crystal clear: We must not see ourselves as individuals. Jesus came to build His church. As His Body we are to “have the same attitude and the same love, live in harmony, and keep one purpose in mind” (Phil. 2:2). We are to “live as good citizens of heaven who reflect the value of the Good News about Christ” (1:27). We are to “work hard together to spread the Good News,” just as Paul and Timothy had done (2:22).

‘We must not see ourselves as individuals.’ This is true in missions (the context of Dave Black’s quote), but it’s also so true for so many (all?) aspects of life as a follower of Jesus Christ. There is a huge difference between a church as a community or family and a church as a group of individuals.

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This morning, as we were meeting with the church, we started talking about caring for one another – that is, caring for those who are part of “the household of faith” – other believers.

One brother said this: “The old saying goes, ‘Blood is thicker than water.’ But, according to Scripture, ‘Blood is thicker than blood.’ The blood of Jesus is ‘thicker’ than family relations. We’re all part of the same family because of Jesus’ blood. Nothing is ‘thicker’ than Jesus’ blood.”

I think he’s right. What do you think?

(I hadn’t taken pictures during one of our church meetings lately, so I decided to take pictures today. You can find them on my facebook profile.)

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This morning, when we met together with the church, no one specifically was scheduled to teach, but the whole church knew that we would be discussing Matthew 25:14-30. Several people spoke about different aspects of this passage often called “The Parable of the Talents.” While I cannot assume to know people’s motives, it seemed that everyone was interested in understanding the passage and helping others understand the Scriptures so that we could all live according to it. It was a great example of community interpretation.

This is how my friend Gary summarized the passage (paraphrasing):

Everything that God gives to us we should give back to him so that he can grow his kingdom through us… and don’t fear.

What do you think?

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Its about 9:00 pm Tuesday night, and we’re just returning home from a Tuesday night worship service with the church. I hear some of you asking, “A Tuesday night worship service?” Yes. A Tuesday night worship service.

This afternoon and this evening after work, twenty or so of us gathered together and worked together to help Jason and Mandie (two of our friends) move. (By the way, Jason has an awesome post on his blog called “Lessons from Marriage.” He’s learning, as I have learned, that marriage can become our most important discipling relationship.)

One friend told me that he had a bad attitude all day. His attitude seemed fine when we were talking. Serving others has a tendency to do that because we take our minds off of ourselves and our circumstances.

So, that was our Tuesday night worship service… helping Jason and Mandie move.

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This series is about our life with the church as we attempt to live together as brothers and sisters. (For a more detailed description of this series, see my post “Church Life – A New Series.”)

The last few weeks have been emotionally draining for me and my family. Margaret, my wife, has been sick for a couple of weeks, and is still trying to shake a lingering cough.

Then, as I wrote in my post “Has it really only been 24 hours,” a friend of ours took his life just over a week ago. (I’ll call him J.) We met him about a year ago as we spend time in “The Neighborhood.” In the last week, I’ve spent time with some of his family members and talked to others on the phone.

His aunt is a good friend of our from the Neighborhood. She asked if I would speak about J. during his funeral service. The funeral home chaplain was conducting the service, but the family wanted someone that knew J. to speak as well. I agreed.

I talked to J.’s aunt about what I wanted to say, and I spoke with the chaplain. He was happy to work me into the service, since he didn’t know J.

Everything was going fine until 10 minutes before I was planning to leave my office to drive to the funeral. The funeral home chaplain called me and said, “Something has come up. I can’t do J.’s funeral. Can you do it?”

I didn’t know the plans. I didn’t know what music the family wanted. I didn’t know if anyone else was speaking. But, of course, I agreed to do the service.

Why? Because I loved J. and I loved his family. I’m especially close to his aunt, and I wanted to do anything that I could for them.

I talked about J. and his aunt and spending time with them. I talked about their love for one another and their family. I talked about how J. trusted God in spite of the darkness and pain of his life. I reminded them about how King David struggled with the pain of life as well, but was still a man after God’s own heart.

I encouraged the family to love one another and to trust God during this time. I agreed with them that we didn’t understand why J. would choose to take his own life. But, I also told them that we can trust God in spite of our lack of understanding. I reminded them of the good news that we have in Jesus Christ.

After the service (which was short), several family members thanked me for speaking about J. They said that they could tell that I knew him, and they really appreciated what I said.

I was talking on the phone with J.’s aunt a couple of days later and she said, “Our family was talking about what you said at J.’s funeral. We really needed to hear what you said. We’ve decided that you’re now a member of the family.”

I can’t think of a better compliment. I’m praying that God allows me to spend more time with my new family, helping them (and being helped by them) trust God and follow Jesus. For me, this is part of church life.

(Some of my regular readers know that our family has been frustrated in our desires to get to know our neighbors better. It turns out that two of J.’s family members live in our neighborhood. Please pray for continued interaction with them.)

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This series is about our life with the church as we attempt to live together as brothers and sisters. (For a more detailed description of this series, see my post “Church Life – A New Series.”)

Reading through this series and my blog, it may appear that “church life” depends on me. But, that’s not true at all. So, in this post, I want to highlight a few ways that many of our brothers and sisters share life together that my family may not be directly involved with.

When we first starting meeting together as a church, we started a few Bible studies, because that’s what churches do. While the formats and times and locations and people involved have changed from time to time, two of those Bible studies continue today. The people involved with the Bible studies decide what they are going to study and how they are going to study. One Bible study is now hosted by a family who is not a part of our church apart from the study.

One family has four young boys. A few years ago, while they were studying Scripture together, the boys were convicted about caring for widows. So, the family started spending time in a local nursing home. They invite others from the church to join them and begin forming relationships with the residents.

Three of our brothers recently started playing soccer in an adult league. While they’re playing, two of the wives get together. Recently, one of the single guys (thanks Jon!) volunteered to keep their children so they could watch the soccer match.

I couldn’t begin to count the number of times that someone has made dinner for someone else due to sickness. This is not something that’s planned or announced, although someone will occasionally send out a notice to let people know that they are organizing meals for someone who is going to need them for a long time (like for a new mother).

People who are part of the church are constantly having dinner together, and inviting others who are not part of the church together. Just in the last year, at least three families have hosted missionaries and have then invited others to their house to hear from and encourage those missionaries.

These may sound like small things, and they are, in one sense. These are simply examples of how our brothers and sisters have chosen to share life together. Church life happens in the small things, the everyday, ordinary things.

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