Being Community

Seeking to be an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed

Last week we began a weekly series of Friday posts exploring and unpacking our Vision here at CBC. If you miss any of the posts as we go through you can access them easily by clicking on the link to the relevant word above - or by clicking on the 'Vision' label which you will find at the bottom of this post.

This week I want to think about what it means to be 'community'.

If you were to do a search on the word 'community' in the NIV New Testament you would only get one hit (Acts 25:24) - but the Greek word used here occurs elsewhere in the NT but is translated variously as 'crowd', 'assembly', 'group' etc.

But within the NT account of the early church we certainly find the first Christians committed to meeting together for worship and fellowship - e.g. Acts 2:42-47. The writer to the Hebrews warns against no longer meeting together - for when we come together we are able to encourage each other and spur each other on (Hebrews 10:24-25). The language of the NT speaks of disciples as brothers and sisters - the language of family.

Jesus was accused of eating with the wrong kinds of people - and we find this practice - of eating together, and sharing hospitality - continues into the life of the early church. Jewish Christians share the hospitality of Gentile Christians - something that would not have happened without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit - and an outward sign of a deeper inner change. 

Contrast, for example, Paul's comment in Acts 10:28, "you are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with Gentiles of visit them" with the invitation just 30 verses later, "Then they (a household of Gentiles) asked Peter to stay with them for a few days". This Peter presumably did because of the charge against him in Acts 11:3 "you went into the house of the uncircumcised and ate with them". Similarly Lydia sees the offering and acceptance of hospitality as an outworking and sign of her new faith (Acts 16:15).

Clearly the picture we find in the NT is of believers in Jesus who are sharing their lives together - not just 'in church' but also opening their homes to each other and eating together.

In our journey of discipleship we will all be at different points. There will be some people we learn from and there will be others we teach. We saw last week that life is often messy and therefore we need to be authentic and real. Young children learn by watching and copying - and it is the same with our faith. We learn by watching and copying - but we can only watch those who we share life with.

CBC is not a big church but it is probably too big for everyone to know everyone - it is certainly too big for everyone to know everyone really well. If you wanted to invite everyone round for Sunday lunch - either you would need a massive house or it will take you months and months and months. But you can know a few people really well - people who you can share your life with. For many of us this smaller group of individuals may be our home group, but there are also other groups who meet regularly (e.g. the musicians/singers, men's breakfast, the Bumps & Babes team). There will be things that are going on in your life that you don't want to share publicly but hopefully there will be one or two people that you can share with for support and prayer - and just to 'off load'.

In their latest Idea magazine the Evangelical Alliance highlight the positive impact on health - both physical and mental - of living in a community where people feel they have a strong support system where people can open up, talk and experience the power of prayer. (Two copies of this magazine are available in the centre for you to take away and read.)

But within any larger group of people there will be those who are not a part of any smaller group, those who are on the fringe for one reason or another - there will be those who choose to remain on the edge of what is happening. It is our vision that CBC will be a place where no one feels isolated, where everyone feels welcomed and a part of what is going on, everyone feels supported and is supporting others, a place where we do life together.

One of the challenges we face is how do we develop community when circumstances, shift working, family commitments etc mean that patterns of church attendance are changing. If you were to ask someone 15 years ago - regular church attendance meant Sunday morning, Sunday evening and midweek Bible study (as a minimum). Regular church attendance today (in terms of Sunday) can mean twice a month. So how do we ensure that we still share life together...?

Praying the Psalms

We're now nearly two weeks into the new year, and for those who are following the Read Scripture plan by The Bible Project that means we're approaching the end of Genesis, currently in the middle of the story about Joseph.

One exciting part of this programme is the prospect of praying through the book of Psalms two and a half times during 2016. If you've printed out the reading schedule the instructions for the Psalms state,

One Psalm is listed each day for you to slowly pray through, making its words your own. By the end you'll have prayed through the book of Psalms 2.5 times.

Someone asked me this week what it means to pray through the Psalms - how do you do it?

Already in these two weeks you will have noticed that there is a great variety in the Psalms. You may have also come across a few verses that you're not too sure about praying - for example 3:7 says, "Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked" - doesn't seem to be a very 'Christian' prayer to me.

One of the other things you've probably noticed about these first few Psalms is that they are not always written from a 'happy place'. Quite a few are clearly written from a very low point "why Lord do you stand far off, why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" 10:1 and yet still hold on to the knowledge that "the Lord is King for ever and ever" 10:16. Or today's reading from Psalm 13, "How long Lord? Will you forget me for ever? ... But I trust in your unfailing love..."

(Psalms like today's do reassure us that when we pray God is able to cope with our honesty, he can cope with our questions and our doubts.)

At other times there are words of praise, "I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds... 9:1.

It may be that on a particular day you are able to identify with the emotions and thoughts of the Psalm you are reading, and therefore make the words your own, but on other days that may not be the case.

One approach to praying the Psalms is to read the Psalm through slowly a couple of times and then to think about:

• one thing the Psalm teaches about God that you want to give thanks for;
• one thing the Psalm reveals about yourself that you could repent of;
• one thing the Psalm shows you you could aspire to, ask for or act on,

and then allow these thoughts to shape our prayers.

Timothy Keller, author of 'My Rock, My Refuge: A year of daily devotions in the Psalms' also points out in this short audio interview that simply reading the Psalms on a daily basis will give us the language to pray.

Understanding Matthew's Gospel

This morning we're starting a new series at CBC looking at the theme of the 'Kingdom of God'. We're going to be focusing on Matthew's gospel - of the four gospels Matthew says most about the Kingdom of God (although he often uses the phrase the Kingdom of heaven).

We won't have time on Sunday to look at the structure of Matthew's gospel in any detail but here are two introductory videos that will provide us with a good overview of Matthew's gospel.

Those of you who are following our Bible reading programme will recognise these videos as the work of the great people over at The Bible Project.

Being authentic

Seeking to be an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed

Today we're starting a weekly series of Friday posts looking at our CBC Vision in more detail, exploring a bit more what each of the words means and why they've been used.

When we came together as a church in November to listen to God and to each other one of the words that came through the feedback again and again was the word 'authentic'. Some people used the word 'real' or 'genuine'. 

But what does this mean?

One of the things it means to be authentic is that church is a place where we don't feel we have to wear masks - to try to pretend to be someone that we're not.

We know that God sees us for who we are and God loves us regardless. But there is sometimes a real fear that if other people in the church saw us that way they wouldn't be so loving or forgiving or gracious. And so we wear a mask.

One of the privileges of my job is that I get to talk to a lot of different people about things that they might not talk to anyone else about. Sometimes these are things that are a real challenge - and it is surprising how often these individuals think that they are alone in facing this issue. We come to church on a Sunday morning - and obviously we know all about our 'stuff' and our 'baggage' - but then we look around at everyone else singing the hymns and we convince ourselves that everyone has life sorted - except us.

But usually life is messy. Our understanding of 'church' has to be wider than just what happens on a Sunday morning. Authentic church cannot happen in 90 minutes one day a week. Authentic church will create space for people to respond to what God is doing - whether this is after a Sunday service, or at a home group, or over coffee on a Wednesday morning.

Part of what it means to be authentic is to recognise that life is messy and to be honest about that. Part of what it means to be authentic is that when we read the Bible we're honest about the questions that it leaves us with - questions that don't necessarily have any answers - certainly not any easy answers. Part of what it means to be authentic is that people feel comfortable and able to be themselves knowing that they won't be judged but will be loved and supported.

But being an authentic church can only happen when we are centred on Jesus, and when we are obediently following him. Otherwise our faith cannot be authentic. We might be doing all kinds of great things but if we are not following Jesus then whatever else we may be we are not an authentic church.

My hope for this series of posts is that it will encourage us all to think more deeply about our vision and what it means for us to be and do church. There is more I could say here. But maybe there are things that you want to say or ask or question - feel free to comment, either in person, or here, or on the church Facebook page...

Next Friday we'll think about what it means to be 'community'.