Notes from Week Two

What is the role of the redemptive community?
The role of the redemptive community (the church), in relation to the individuals within it, is to fit and maintain each other for life. We are asking the question as people who are part of the redemptive community and who want the church to be faithful and effective, but who have the nagging suspicion that things are not oriented toward one of the primary tasks we have been given; namely, training people in the life of Jesus.

We believe the role of the church needs to involve, among others, three key dimensions. The redemptive community must function as:

An Incarnational Community: to make you a student of Jesus, embodying kingdom life, living your life as Jesus would if he were you.

An Orienting Community: to surround you in the Trinitarian reality, re-presenting God’s story and our role in it.

A Formational Community: to teach you how to do the ‘all things’ that Jesus commanded. If we take Jesus’ example (i.e., Luke 10), the pattern we see is: teaching, followed by sending out to do (practice), and then a time to ‘debrief.’




Our time together is shaping us, but how?
What you see is what you get from the way things are. As someone said, “Your system is perfectly designed to produce the result you are getting.” Our time shared together—what we do when we gather as Jesus’ disciples—has shaped us in a particular way. One question we might want to ask ourselves is, “In what way are we being shaped?’ Another question to follow that might be, “Are our practices and programs producing the results we expect?”

Just asking that question might bring out the fact that many of us take for granted that we are doing what we’re supposed to be doing. It might, therefore, bring out the sense that we’re either not very good at doing it and we just need to try harder, or that we’re satisfied with the way things are.

We hope that such questions will lead us, instead, to evaluate what practices are being overemphasized, what practices are being ignored, and what practices might actually be blocking our formation into Christlikeness. We hope that such questions will lead us to consider fresh ways of ordering our life together as we better understand the role of the redemptive community in our lives.


Critical evaluation of common mindsets
If we were brutally honest, we would acknowledge that to one degree or another, we assume ourselves to be consumers of religious goods and services. In many people’s minds, and in many practices of local congregations, the church is supposed to function as the vendor of those goods and services.

One indicator of how this consumer mentality operates is our language and our expectations about our meetings. We speak variously of “entering in” or “getting fed” or “fellowship” as if the reason we gather is to ‘get’, or consume, some kind of experience from songs and sermons.

We are not suggesting that we are absolutely, totally, and utterly wrapped up in ourselves and only interested in what we ‘get out of it.’ We are suggesting that we live in a culture that appears to be so, and we have not gone unaffected. We are suggesting that our mindsets toward our shared life need to be examined and, where necessary, renovated.

The redemptive community is meant to help us incarnate a life of love, orient us to a life of love, and form us so that we live out Kingdom lives of love by teaching, practicing and debriefing. The question we must ask is: Are our communities succeeding? Or do we and the people we know look more like Will (from the movie, “About a Boy”)? Most of us probably see traces of ourselves (and if not ourselves – well certainly others) in Will. Instead of being people of love who are very much other directed and focused, we may well be like Will starring in our own shows with occasional guest stars coming and going as it suits the need of the show.

Could it be that the church has been more shaped by the goals and mission of culture and the gods of the age than it has been by the mission given to her by Christ?

The prevailing gods of this day may well be the belief that the Individual is supreme and that the Individual is a Consumer with Choice. We must look with loving care at the Bride of Christ. In love we must be willing to say perhaps we often heed the siren call of the gods of this world rather than the voice of the Lover of our Souls.

When we simply think about some of the phrases that are used with the word Church we may discern where we have been shaped my the gods of the age.

Where do you go to Church? Here Church is something we attend not who we are. Paul describes the Church as the family of God. Imagine saying to someone, Where do you go to family? Or What time is family?

I’m Church shopping. Here Church is a product I consume not who I am. Scriptures describe a battle existing between Christ and his enemies and we are admonished to be soldiers in the army of the King. Imagine an enlisted soldier saying, "I’m army shopping."

I didn’t really get too much from Church today. First, this mindset assumes the Church is a time when we get together not who we are. Second, it assumes the church is about meeting my needs – it is something other than me.

(A question a Pastor is frequently asked) How big is your church? Church is something that is mine and is open to comparison, and size is what matters not the quality of the people.

These commonly used phrases indicate that it is likely that church in America is conceived of more as a place, a time an event – in short a product. More than it is conceived of as a called out people - sent on a mission from God. If church is a product than our goal rightly should be to produce that best product that we can possibly produce. Our gathering times then should be geared towards producing really good events.

Scripture indicates that Church is something more than a product to be consumed. It is a body of people shaped by God and sent by God into the world he loves to join in his healing work. If we are to be faithful, we need to orient ourselves toward that mission—an orientation that may likely transform our goals and expectations for our life together.



Goals for our LIFE TOGETHER
For the purposes of this class we are summarizing our mission as "Love God, Love others." This in a nutshell is the "everything" Jesus means when he says "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you."

I can not love someone- look out for there best interest- and at the same time be envying their house. I can not be loving someone and at the same time manipulating them. I can not love someone and at the same time view them with contempt. In short, Love – being oriented towards God and others is the mission of Church.

The goals of our gathering then must be driven by our mission. Since our mission is "Love God, Love others," then the goal of our gathering times ought to be Training in Loving God and in Loving Others.

These goals mean that other things can not be the goals – even good things like: "entering in, being fed, having our needs met or fellowship." (What is interesting is that when the goals are kept straight and followed these other things follow).

When these goals are kept in mind we can expect groups that form around these goals to have a certain distinctive flavor. Here are a few of the distinct flavorings that such a group would have.

God – Centered – when the group gathers worship and praise will be given freely as a gift to God

Challenge –in such a group we will be challenged by how much we love ourselves. We will admit that we have a problem and that we need the help of god and others.

Confession- We will admit where our lives are not what they ought to be.

Conversation – Our conversations will ask about how we can obey Jesus in particular areas of our lives. There will be dialogue between each other and there will be times of listening to the Spirit.

Accountability – After our conversations we will ask each other how we are doing in following Christ.

Sharing Ourselves – We will share our lives in authentic ways. This means that we will seek each others input in our lives and we will be willing to submit our decisions to each other.

Sharing Our Stuff- We will share our time resources and talents with each other.

Restructuring – People following Christ and restructuring their lives according to the Goals of Loving God and Loving Others.


Such a group would need:

Commitment – a group of people captured by the beauty of the Kingdom and committed to loving God and loving each other

Time – it takes time to shape a life in the way of Jesus. We need to think long-term in our expectations for both discipleship and transformation of the world around us.





GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

How does a group like that described strike you?



Groups like this are possible. They have existed in the past and they exist today. The Kingdom produces groups of people who love God and love others. But these groups aren’t everywhere. What keeps groups like this from forming?



What are some baby steps towards being in a group like this?


New Ways of Thinking about Christian Community
-Thinking beyond the local ‘congregation’, what other (presently existing) communities might we identify and acknowledge/utilize as redemptive communities?

-How do we incorporate training in community into the normal patterns of life? What is already present that could be given more attention? What is in the way and needs to be replaced?


Questions for Clarity

One communal practice that we would do well to put into practice is to form situational ‘Clarity Committees’ or ‘Discernment Groups’ to learn how to discern God’s direction in specific situations. We are going to model a semi-hypothetical discernment group so that we can see one way this might be practiced among a group of people. The following is a list of some important questions that may be involved in such a gathering.

Why do you want to do this?

What is the motivation?

Is there any clear obvious scriptural teaching to support this decision?

Have you talked to the people this will impact?

Is your mind made up?

If we discern the Spirit leading in another direction will you take that direction?

What affirmation have you had from the Spirit?

How long have you been weighing this decision?