It sounds pretty ambitious, but it's what I have been thinking about lately.
It started with a tweet I read (and I can't remember the source - but it stuck with me). I follow a lot of (surprising, I know!) clergy types and one of these folks tweeted something like: "Sermonizing at the local coffee shop and there are two church groups meeting. One doing a bible study, one doing a planning meeting. I know which church I'd rather be a part of!" The implication being that bible study is more appealing than planning/administration because it is intimate, more intentional, and discipleship making (and even transformative). Now don't get me wrong, I'm a Presbyterian Pastor so I love a good planning meeting...but, let's face it, those are seldom transformative and disciple-making, right?
I just concluded facilitating an adult bible study using a dvd called "Embracing an Adult Faith" that featured Marcus Borg reflecting and pontificating about his faith journey. I love Marcus Borg - but the adults attending the bible study were less than enamored with him! On the week we were talking about "Practices," Marcus Borg said something like - Christian practices at their best open us up to the deeper and broader reality of life in the spirit. And this opening leads to transformation. In other words, when we engage in the practice of prayer, we open ourselves to the realm of the Spirit, and this transforms us into something we weren't before. A new creation!"
Although I'm all for the practices of individual spirituality, I'm curious and excited to think about communal practices - practices done in a community of faith that open us up to the reality of God and the work of the Holy Spirit that transform us together - so that we are different - new creations - the church that God intends us to be.
And of course, Easter is fast approaching so I am thinking about that story again and trying to re-tell is in a way that makes us different. Jesus is alive - a new creation. How does this affect our communities? Our practices? How does this transform us?
To find out more, I guess you'll have to come to church on Easter.
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