Tuesday, May 18, 2010
I've been thinking...
... more about the comment I made in my sermon on Sunday that 'in order to live out missionality in our individual lives, we also need to be living it out in community together.' I've been thinking about this because one of the common responses I get from people in the church when suggesting that they need to be in a cluster, living out mission with a group of people, is that they are living out mission in their own world and they don't have time to also being doing it with others. Though it sounds reasonable, I think that for most people it's inaccurate - and it's from reflecting back to my time in university that I see this most clearly. When I was a student at SFU I got plugged into a Christian group on campus called Campus Crusade for Christ. For the first year and a half I resisted much involvement beyond a bible study, because I was so 'busy'. As time went on though I started getting more and more involved and I started engaging what I can only in hindsight clearly identify as a cluster. We had about 40 of us gathering fairly regularly for meals, having fun together, worshipping together, breaking off into small groups, and doing mission together. And it was in doing life together like this that I experienced a fuller joy in my faith, learned to live missionally, and became motivated to then engage people in my own world. I encourage you to keep fighting for us to be a people on mission together.
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I have also been thinking that it is absolutely great to have clusters and to be in community in order to reach our own world. I think it is amazing....!!! I am actually new in LEFC and was really excited of this new concept of clusters... and suddenly realized that i have not been able to find any proper bible study.
i recently heard a sermon on missions from a guy who was a missionary in North Africa for some 12 years. he was saying how Jesus is our prime example of what it means to be a missionary and how to live our day to day, missionally. the pastor made an excellent point that Jesus went and LIVED AMONG the people. Jesus lived in a neighborhood, was a citizen in a city, was a carpenter who did business with others, and a church/synagogue member, just to name a few. we're the same. we live among the people - we're a fellow student, a fellow co-worker, a fellow neighbor, a fellow church-goer, a fellow citizen, a fellow parent, a fellow-whatever - fill in the blank. in all of his day to day contexts, Jesus was constantly reaching out wherever he was, in whatever he was doing with his fellow-whatevers. he was always extending friendship - connecting with people in concrete ways - eating with people, going to parties and social events (i.e. a wedding), talking to people on the road to somewhere else, connecting in the marketplace and in the synagogue, and wherever else he happened to be at the time. he would strike up conversations with people - inviting people into his life, sharing his life with others, and engaging in their lives. he was a friend. we as Christians can do that with our neighbors, with our co-workers, our fellow students if we go to school, in our families, when we go shopping, on sports teams, on the bus, whatever our context - extending friendship; love. and i think if we're connecting and creating relationships in our day to day, eventually opportunities for sharing Christ will definitely come up. when i heard that, it dispelled some of my fears around being missional. being a friend to others in my day to day is something concrete that i can do. it doesn't have to be any more complex than that. connect with others where i'm at in my comings and goings just as Jesus did, and be ready to share what Jesus has done in my life when the opportunities come. i can do that!
So Jesus' cluster group must have been his disciples. He prayed with them and for them, and they prayed for him too. He ate and played with them - went to a party with them - I think it was a wedding. He gave and received emotional support from them. He hung out with them. They were his friendship circle. He shared his life with them. So, I guess you could say, if Jesus needed a cluster group, then we DEFINITELY need a cluster group.
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