Posts Tagged ‘community’

Grace in Disagreement

June 22nd, 2008

Tonight I saw people holding the tension between differing ideas very graciously. I saw people differing in their ideas on something even so fundamental as what community should look and act like. I saw people openly sharing what they envisioned and what was on their heart instead of just keeping it to themselves because they weren’t technically in a “leadership” position or because they were afraid. I saw people allowing another person to think differently than them and not trying to coax or convince or fight until they changed the other persons mind – instead they allowed each other to simple share. I saw people really listening to each other and valuing each other’s view points. Tonight I saw people entering into a conversation together and allowing differences and disagreements to arise without love diminishing. And I was so pleased to be a part of it.

 “In a good friendship each member often feels humility towards the rest. He sees that they are splendid and counts himself lucky to be among them.”  - C.S. Lewis

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

Photograph by Beth Stedman

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Sin: More about Social harm than Moral imperfection??

March 18th, 2008

Last night I had a dream. It was basically like a Tuesday at David and Tara’s but with some new faces. We were talking about sin and I made a comment in my dream about how maybe sin is more social then moral. Then I woke up. I started thinking about my dream… sin being more social then moral…

I’ve always thought that God hated sin because it was morally evil – that it was sort of this something other than God. God was perfect, sin was that which “fell short” of God’s perfection. Sin was something God couldn’t in his perfect nature do Himself – or allow or tolerate. Sin was evil and evil was this something outside of or other than God.

But this morning I started thinking maybe God doesn’t hate sin because it is just some moral evil in and of itself and can’t be done or tolerated by a perfect God… Maybe He hates sin because sin is something that hurts people, that damages relationships, that harms community, that injures society. As I started to think about it I couldn’t think of a single sin that didn’t damage relationships and hurt people (if you can I’d be curious to hear it).

The 10 Commandments are a good place to start – each of them could be argued to be about relationship – relationship with God, with family, with neighbor and with society at large. It’s like God is saying these things hurt you, they hurt others, they hurt society and they hurt your relationship with me – so why do I dislike them? I dislike them because they hurt my beloved creation. And that’s why you should dislike them too.

I think in some ways we have disconnected sin from its social consequences, from its relational focus and have instead made sin a very personal, very internal thing. We have made sin about ME falling short of God’s perfection, instead of about me harming and hurting God and others.

Maybe it’s just me, but I found this to be a really interesting train of thought and it made me look at sin in a really different way.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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Church Participation and the Priesthood of all Believers

March 3rd, 2008

Ok, so we’ve all heard the statistic that in any group/church 20% of the people do 80% of the work… So, here’s what I’ve been thinking about… WHY??? Why is it that only 20% of the people do 80% of the work? I think most churches I’ve been a part of people have thrown around that statistic as an unarguable truth or maybe they have sometimes challenged people by saying it shouldn’t be that way and asking people to participate more but I don’t think that I’ve ever really heard people wrestle with why people don’t participate. What makes people participate in a group? What keeps them from participating? These are the questions that have been bouncing around in my head for a while now and lately even more so…

So, I started thinking about my own life… my own involvement or lack of involvement. What has kept me from participating at various times? When I have participated why did I? What made it easier for me to participate? What made it harder? Here are some things I’ve realized…

When people ask me to participate but I don’t feel like they need me to participate I won’t. I’ve been in churches and groups where I’ve had the leader ask me to participate – to “bring my gifts/talents to the group” to be involved and share myself with the group. Generally when this happens I don’t… in fact it has sometimes been sort of a turn off for me making me want to participate even less. Why? Well, because in most of those situations it felt like I wasn’t needed. Sometimes I’ve even felt like they are just saying that because they feel like it’s what they should say not because they really feel like I personally have something to bring to the table as a unique individual. Or maybe they truly did want me to participate/be involved but they already had a structure of leaders set up they didn’t need my gifts they had interns and paid pastors and staff members to lead and come up with ideas and bring their gifts and talents which often didn’t seem that different from mine so why did they need me? They didn’t. Or at least I didn’t feel like they did. So, here’s the question… how do we make people feel not only wanted but NEEDED. I do believe that each person has unique ideas and talents that they can bring to the body of Christ. I do believe that each person is unique themselves and when they come as they are to the body and share who they are with the body beautiful things can happen. But, when people feel like they don’t need to share who they are, that they don’t need to share their ideas or dreams or thoughts, when they feel like there are others who are paid to come up with ideas and participate so why should they then they won’t. So, how do we communicate to people that they are needed? That they do have a unique part to play in the body of Christ?

The second thing I’ve realized sort of piggy backs on the first… I find it difficult to participate when there are set structures in place already – when there are already programs and activities and people already set up to lead them and participate in them then it seems like there is nothing for me to contribute and no need for me to contribute. Maybe this is why I’ve always been drawn to church start ups more so then established churches. I guess I just think that we talk about wanting people to participate, we talk about the priesthood of all believers but when it really comes down to it we don’t act like we believe it. We still have set paid staff and interns and pastors and it’s their job to come up with ideas and programs and to lead and it’s everyone else’s job to just show up and be there. Well, maybe that’s all good and fine in some situations and groups but it doesn’t really seem to lend itself to genuine organic community and it doesn’t seem to encourage active participation – it instead encourages passive participation from most of its congregation. So we lament and complain about the fact that 20% of the people do 80% of the work but isn’t that exactly the system that we have set up? So, here’s the question how could we change the structure of our churches and the systems of our churches to make it so that people feel free to create and lead and bring themselves and their dreams to the church community even if they aren’t on staff, even if they aren’t paid participants – how could we free people up to actively participate in the church instead of passively participating?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this stuff… J

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

 

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Dreaming about church…

February 26th, 2008

copy-of-img_9803.jpgI used to dream about church a lot – and ask questions about church a lot – what should church look like? What can church look like? How would it change people’s walk with God if this part of church was different? Why are certain things done certain ways in the church? I loved thinking about church, talking about church, dreaming about church and asking questions about church.

But then I stopped… I think partly because life got sort of busy and partly because I feel in love and started dreaming about Bryan instead J and also I think partly because I was frustrated by the discussion – it was too hard sometimes – the questions I asked were uncomfortable sometimes – the churches I saw didn’t fit my dreams of church. But, maybe more than all that I wrestled with a question: If I really believed in the unity of the church, in the idea that God could work through any form, any church, any people, if I really believed that church wasn’t just for what I could get out of it but was for what I could bring to it, if I really believed that family mattered and part of Sundays joy was to spend time with family and connect with them, then is it really right for me to go looking for a new church to fit my ideal of what I want? Shouldn’t I instead just participate in and allow God to use the church that I already go to with my family/Bryan’s family? So, that’s where I landed for a while. I tried to just push my dreams about church aside, tried to get involved in the church structure that already existed and bring what gifts/ideas I could to that structure, but it was frustrating for me. I didn’t feel like I was selflessly serving where God had me (like I had intended/wanted) but instead I felt like my heart was turned off and I was just going through the motions. It was an interesting time in my life.

Then we moved to Prague… suddenly we had a chance to choose a church. For a while we just went somewhere where we knew people because that was easiest and I think it was good for us to meet people in an established church structure for a time when everything was so foreign in our new lives. But, then we met Craig and Sarah, and heard their vision for a church plant and decided that was where we wanted to be and what we wanted to be involved in. And slowly I felt this “church” part of my heart coming alive again. I started to dream about church again. I started to read emerging church blogs again. I started to ask questions about church again and ask them now with a vested interest… it wasn’t just what could church look like, it was what could this church look like. I started wrestling with some common assumptions about church again. I started thinking about how I could get involved and not only support what they are doing but add myself to it – give ideas and start things. I dream…

….But, it’s funny dreaming from the inside but still sort of on the outside…

This week’s focus for Lent is the Church – “Praying for her patterns of behavior and for new patterns toward health and life. Praying for unity among brothers and sisters and for a turning back to Jesus (not programs) to lead His church.” Tara and her family will be focusing specifically on praying for the US church and I will be joining them in that prayer but extending my prayer also to the church more generally around the world and more specifically here in Prague since this is where I am and where my local church is.

Just as I have only recently begun to dream about church again I have also only recently begun to pray about church again and I look forward to this week of focusing on praying intently for the church. Lifting the bride of Christ up to the throne of God and asking that God’s will be done in her.

I also plan on taking this week to share with you some of my recent thoughts and questions on church – I look forward to your input on these thoughts that are bouncing around in my head. In the meantime here are some blogs with thoughts on church that I found interesting…

This blog was fascinating to me – good questions that I will be mulling over for a while I think.

There were a number of blogs on Accidental Blog recently discussing ecclesia and church practice and I found the discussion very interesting. (see posts from Feb 17-21st)

Ok, that’s it for now. More thoughts on church to come…

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

Photograph by Beth Stedman

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