Personal Moments from Holy Week (Part 2): Intentional Gatherings as Engagement

I spent Tuesday night of Holy Week with my friend Aaron. He’s involved in a network of missional communities called Intentional Gatherings. Basically, he’s a catalyst for getting people together and prompting the question: what would it really look like if we sought to love our community as Christ followers.  Their website says:

Intentional Gatherings is a network of missional communities. A missional community is a group of individuals who choose to selflessly do life together, with a common focus, through God’s grace exemplifying Jesus as he lives in us.

Last Tuesday, Rommel opened us up with music, and then we spent time discussing church traditions and habits that are hard for people outside of the church to understand.  Two books have been released lately touching on this and similar issues (“They Like Jesus, But Not the Church” by Dan Kimball and “Pagan Christianity” by George Barna), but it was nice to move the conversation from the page to the living room.

I was particularly struck by one comment about how people feel stifled by church services that tell them when to stand-up, when to sit-down, and when to talk to God (ie pray). Another fellow said that he spent months to years helping with music in a church where he didn’t fit in, but he felt it was the least he could do for God and that church to go, play bass, and leave.  A girl mentioned going to church with her nose ring, only to hear the murmurs of people in the pew behind her.

I sat listening for a long while, before offering my perspective.  Aaron and I both knew that I had lot to say about the subject, but I didn’t want to hijack the conversation.  When the subject of Communion and church tradition was brought up, Aaron asked me for some input.  I offered a couple analogies to show why I believe Communion is important exercise for the church to practice on a frequent basis, and like most pictures they resonated with some and not with others.  Most importantly though, I spoke about how the Eucharist as a tradition only has meaning as it engages the Holy Spirit. Traditions and spiritual disciplines, whether practiced individually or corporately, whether marked by activity or stillness, all find their meaning not relative to culture but to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

After most everyone went home, a small group of us stayed behind to continue talking. Through the course of conversation, we recognized forms of relational engagement that are essential to the vitality of any community. The following is my synopsis and further reflection on that discussion:

Engaging the Word through Scripture
Engaging the King through Culture
Engaging the Spirit through Prayer

As we engage Scripture through Prayer, we find Wisdom.
As we engage Culture through Prayer, we find Healing.

As we engage Culture through Scripture, we find Hope.
As we engage Prayer through Scripture, we find Strength.

As we engage Scripture through Culture, we find Relevance.
As we engage Prayer through Culture, we find Brokenness.

We had spent time engaging culture that evening and we had spoken in previous encounters about the need to engage the Word, but Tuesday night was the first time we had seriously engaged in prayer.  In a special way, God engaged us as we engaged Him in prayer, and that night we experience the sweetness of true communion.

~ by sexyreligion on March 29, 2008.