What is Christian Fellowship?
Image courtesy of SpirosK
I find myself coming back to the idea of Christian fellowship again and again. Some people may think of me as that crazy uncle who rants about how things should be. I have to admit that it feels like I go to extremes on this sometimes. I have come to understand that I can be counted on to find what’s wrong with a situation. And I know that I can be the downer in the room when I start working through all the flaws in an idea. But as a friend of mine observed, I can also keep pressing people from becoming complacent because I can see there’s so much more ahead.
And that is where I find myself on the topic of fellowship. I know that so many times we are making mud pies and call it fellowship when God desires to give us a weekend at the beach, to borrow an analogy from C.S. Lewis. I think some of it stems from the frantic pace of our lives that we’ve forgotten how to slow down and enjoy relationships. We get so busy with activities, even activities with people, but we miss the bigger picture. Read more
Busyness & Community
Photo courtesy of mknobil
My small group befriended a refugee family from Nepal about a year ago. We partnered with World Relief to help the family make the transition to American culture and help them with their English. We offered to meet with them twice a week. For several months, we would have a couple different people each Thursday evening and Saturday morning go and work with the family. Last summer, we all got together and took them to the zoo. Another weekend we took them to the mall. Hindsight, I think we overwhelmed them with the mall. But they still talk about going to the zoo.
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Laughter and Good Friends
I’ve had the great privilege the last two nights to spend time with good friends and just laugh. There are times when friends get together and the emotional walls are there. There are conversations, but you realize they can only go so far. And then there are times when it seems like everyone drops their guards for a few minutes. The conversations flow easier and usually at some point the laughter starts. It’s even better when there is that one person in the group who has an infectious laugh. Everyone will get themselves under control and that one person will lose it again, which causes the whole group to start laughing again. Read more
Cambodia 2009 Recap
People have asked me what I liked about Cambodia or what I learned. It’s been hard to synthesize my thoughts because in part I was adjusting to being back in the states and also the stress of looking for a job.
The biggest thing that stands out in my mind is the sense of family and community. You’ve got a group of people that come from various nationalities and backgrounds yet have a common bond in Jesus Christ. Despite the cultural and language differences, they are a family. Our idea of family in the states has been skewed because of our frantic schedules and our geographic dispersion. This group in Cambodia eats together, works together, worships together and plays together. They care for each other and serve each other. This just stirred a longing in me for the same kind of community here. Read more
Book Review: Life Together
I had to write a book digest for my Adult Small Groups class and decided I would go ahead and post it. Part of the assignment was to come up with a guiding principle from each chapter. These principles would be used by those starting small groups.
Bonhoeffer wrote this book while working at an underground seminary living with 25 students. He is very systematic and prescriptive in this book. He begins by looking at what Christian community is and is not. He then moves on to discuss how the community is to fellowship at various points of the day. Following this, he looks at how the individual is to go about their individual devotions which in turn will strengthen the community. Bonhoeffer concludes the book by looking at the ministries that the community is to perform for one another and how confession and communion are to occur within the community.
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WordCamp Dallas 2009 Impressions
I spent this weekend “drinking from a firehose” as Jon Pozadzides put it on the first day. I’ve been using and developing for WordPress for the last few years so I wondered what I would actually get out of WordCamp. Several of the speakers reiterated things that I knew but have failed to act on.
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