Community

from nakedpastor.com

During our gathering, one thing that seemed to keep coming up in our discussions was the idea of community, and the need for a genuine, authentic community.
I think a lot of people do feel disconnected. Even though we are surrounded by people in our daily lives, many of us are left feeling alone and lonely.
Instead of engaging regularly with our neighbors, many of us start thinking ‘high fences are the best neighbors.’
Or if you’re like me, you close the garage door as soon as you pull up to avoid any interactions with the neighbors.
Growing up in South Carolina, we had porches in our houses. But I think the porch is a thing of the past. Porches, at least from my recollection, always brought in conversations. I’ll walk to school, and people will be out the porch wishing me a good learning that day.
But now, instead of the porch, I think we like our TV more. Inside the comfort of our house.

And the truth is, we live in isolation.
Maybe that’s why facebook and myspace and social networks are doing so well.
Or maybe these social networks are feeding into our being isolated from physical community.
It seems like our goal is to avoid people, to avoid real human contact, as much as possible. I know that I’m naturally inclined to feel that way.

And the scarier thing is, I see this disconnect happening in many of our churches.
Sure, we meet and greet one another on Sundays. Our average-Joe church goer has many, many acquaintances and people to greet and people to greet him. She may be acquainted with many people, but isn’t known by any of them.

How do we change that?
I don’t think I’m way off saying that our culture, this generation, they are craving relationships.
So how do we go about providing an authentic community for people who feel so disconnected?

Two Blog Posts to Check Out

• Young Clergy Booth at an Annual Conference – Andrew Conard reserved a booth for young clergy at the Kansas West Annual Conference. Perhaps that’s something that we may want to look into here at the Cal-Pac Conference
• Open Letter to Young UMC Clergy – Ben Simpson has started a project for a 40 Day prayer for the leaders of our denomination and for the denomination itself. I think I (Joseph) am scheduled to write a prayer for the day of 5/22. I ask that you pray for our conference and our young and older clergy of the Cal-Pac, especially on that date.

Around the Blogosphere

• What is a new church or a new congregation?
• Andrew’s vision for church reform
• Why Guy stays in the UMC
• Thoughts on Worship songs. Agree? Disagree?

Picture for thought:

from ASBO Jesus

Living in a Modern Day Athens…

"The Starbucks is my parish..."

There is a really cool scene in Scripture, where a maverick by the name of Paul is walking the city streets of Athens.  The scene is abuzz with people going about their daily routines.  Nothing is really out of the ordinary, except for one thing: the street is lined with altars.  And each altar is devoted to a different god – Baal, Zeus, Aphrodite.  You name it, that god was present and accounted for.

Actually, the scene looked a bit like a farmer’s market, but instead of produce and local artisans, this market was full of idols.  Now, here’s the cool thing.  Paul sees all of this and he starts engaging the people there in a conversation.  “You all must be pretty spiritual,” he says, “considering that you have so many different gods here.”  He doesn’t shy away from addressing the obvious, but then his genius shows up and he’s got their complete attention.  Paul points to one of the last altars on that street – an altar that was devoid of any statues or physical idols – an altar that simply had an inscription on it that read, “To an Unknown God.”  As the story goes, Paul boldly explains to the people of Athens – the supposed religious people of Athens – that this unknown god is none other than the God of Israel and the Creator of all things.  That one awesome moment where Paul engaged the people is recorded in Acts 17:23.

I think we need to be more like Paul.  We need to walk the city streets and engage the world.  We need more moments of boldness in the spirit of Acts 17:23.  We need to fearlessly and shamelessly (with great love for the people for whom Jesus died) name for others “the unknown god” and articulate a true sense of spirituality that goes way beyond religiosity and embraces an ethos of relevance.

I am reminded of my hero, John Wesley, who preached, “The world is my parish…”  He was not content in “doing church” inside the church.  And so, he took the Gospel out into the world and brought it to where the people were at.  What would our ministries be like if we claimed that same innovative and daring spirit?  Perhaps, the starbucks down the street could be our parish.  Perhaps, we can truly live in the engage 17:23 spirit.  Perhaps. ~ posted by Samuel Yun

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Author’s Note:  This blog has been created for the purpose of catalyzing dialogue among those who hunger to see the world engaged for the sake of the Gospel message.  The voices heard here, hopefully, will include both those inside and outside of “conventional church”.  Feel free to leave us your thoughts, comments and feedback.