What Are We Inviting People Into?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
I often wonder what we are inviting people into when we invite them to live for Jesus Christ. In a sense, we are inviting them first into our own lives as individuals and communities. Do we invite them into a kingdom of guilt-driven, over-committed, stressed, distracted, busybodies? This is the typical picture I have of people involved in full-time ministry, and it is a tragic picture. It seems than in many Christian circles, burnout has become an accepted side-effect of ministry, even a battle scar worn proudly by those who have learned to burn the candle at both ends. This too, is tragic.
One of the main differences in being a part of an order like InnerCHANGE as opposed to a missions agency or organization is that our people (interns, apprentices, staff, etc.) are more valuable to us than the task. In other words, the spiritual and personal formation that is taking place in each of us in the long run is as important as the "work" itself. This is a value that I have seen modeled over and over again throughout my life with InnerCHANGE. My spiritual, physical, and emotional health are not simply private matters that I am personally responsible to care for outside of, and top of my regular ministry.
Is it possible to minister out of fullness? Is is permissible to build into our ministry schedules times of solitude and prayer? Is it profitable to invest as much time in our own spiritual formation as we give to others? Is a sabbath worth what it costs? For the sake of those who must look to us to see the kingdom of God, I pray the answer is yes.
Lord Jesus Christ, make our communities and lives into winsome parables. May we demonstrate the reality of the peaceable kingdom you said was near at hand. Keep us from trusting in hurry and success rather than in your Spirit "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8
Posted by Benjamin Washam 12:48 AM 2 comments
Labels: Ecclesiology, General Reflections, Minneapolis, Scripture Reflections
Church: the communist way
Monday, May 23, 2005
Yes, the rumors are true: I am living in a commune in San Francisco this summer. Or something similar to that. While working during the week for InnerCHANGE, I am housed with Church of the Sojourners (COS). Sojourners (not the Jim Wallace branch) takes seriously the idea that our faith is not primarily an individual one (though that is part of it) but more importantly a communal thing that need to be fleshed out within the body of Christ. Loving one another is our primary calling, and to do that right takes a full-time commitment to each other! Life decisions, relationships, family, and faith need the support and accountability of the body of Christ, and these people have chosen to form their lifestyle around what they believe to be truth.
Members of COS range from Edith in her 50's who joined back in the 80's to Dan and Katie, young newlyweds and new members who are just joining the church. There are college-aged singles, young families with toddlers, and empty nest-ers; ex hippies, conservative Christians, and myself, about 40 in all. These brothers and sisters in Christ live together in a handful of houses in the same neighborhood and share common living quarters except for bedrooms. I am learning from them what it means to love one another as a full time calling and way of life, not just an option for those who have the time and the energy.
Posted by Benjamin Washam 12:31 AM 2 comments
Labels: Ecclesiology, San Francisco
My Upside Down Church
I went to "church" today at Church of the Sojourners. I went to the flat upstairs where, in the expanded living room I found my neighbors and fellow church members sitting around on couches and folder chairs singing praises, passing the bread and wine to each other, and sharing a family meal together as a church. This is not a religious ceremony sybolizing unity in the body and blood of Jesus Christ, this is simply a weekly reflection and celebration of what they are ALREADY LIVING every day with each other.
Unity. Christ prayed that we woud be one in unity as He and the Father were one, so that the world would know that we are His disciples. Sojourners church members take Christ at His word and seek to rearrange their lives in whatever way necessary to fulfill this task of loving each other for Jesus sake to witness to the world. For these 40, it means making career and ministry goals SECONDARY to being faithful to loving each other. I agree, this seems inefficient and limiting; they are tied to location and church; most of us consider our personal and ministry goals first, and move around to new cities and church bodies as needed; Sojourners reverses that. We were not called to be successful first, above all, we are called to love each other, and if we can't do that right with the people we are closest to, we have no right to move ahead in other ministries.
Posted by Benjamin Washam 12:11 AM 0 comments
Labels: Ecclesiology, San Francisco
The Wonder at First Baptist
Saturday, May 21, 2005
First Baptist of SF was a church much like any other: Sunday mornings with a praise band, great preaching, and a thriving Wednesday night Bible Study Ministry. I had attended this church once before during an urban ministry trip spring break of my sophomore year at Wheaton. Now I was here again, literally hours after my plane had landed in SF for my internship. The church had started a tradition of having a church potluck on Wednesday nights before Bible Studies or Youth Groups began with the involved church members bringing dishes to share with each other. It was all going swimmingly until.... the homeless folks of the neighborhood discovered it.
The homeless folks in SF know a regular circuit of shelters and ministries where they can get meals fairly regularly. They caught wind of a potluck at First Baptist and crashed the party! What do you do? Send them away, refer them to a shelter, or stop your church's potluck? This church stopped to consider what God was doing and how to love these people that God had brought to their church door.
First Baptist ended up opening their doors and embracing the homeless folks to feed them, and feed them well! Darren Prince mediated the dinner that night while church people donated resources for food, and the church people cooked up a BBQ chicken, mashed potato, salad, and fruit dinner with hot drinks on the side. I sat at a table in wonder as the street people; homeless, druggies, alcoholics, and rejects were welcomed in to a dinner table set for them - by the church. I sat at a table with Jeremiah "Jerry" and talked for an hour straight about life in SF, Mormonism, baseball and Wrigley Field, why he is on the streets, and his take on Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares. I learned much from this streetwise and spiritually wise man who took to the streets to live until his pension kicks in. Pray for Jerry, that his knowledge of Christ will deepen as he attends a Bible Study at First Baptist after Wednesday night dinners.
Father, how often do I miss or simply ignore the people that you bring into my life every day when I am busy with my "primary ministry" that always seems so important? My ministry is to love the people that you bring into my life everyday, not my agenda for accomplishing tasks. May I never take my mission for granted, or grasp too tightly my plans for the future, but remain in a posture of listening and obedience. Amen.
Posted by Benjamin Washam 2:05 AM 0 comments
Labels: Ecclesiology, San Francisco
