This Sunday we are wrapping up our 3 month series on what the Scriptures teach about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and be on mission as a church community. We have used the phrase "We are asking God to transform us into a: Worshiping-Community-Of-Missional-Theologians" and been breaking that down each week to show what the Bible teaches about each of those things. We have been creating art pieces during the gatherings with each one representing one of the words "Worshiping" or "Community" etc. This week those art pieces will be part of the prayer stations when we pray for God to truly transform us as a church in these areas.
As part of the wrap-up I will be interviewing Susan Harding who is a professor of anthropology at the University of California Santa Cruz. She has written a couple of books about religion, one was studying Jerry Falwell called The Book Of Jerry Falwell.Susan is someone who admittedly is not a "Christian" as we would generally define that in the church. Yet she is someone who values Jesus and His teachings. She came to Vintage Faith Church to do an anthropological study as part of research for her next book. She started coming almost 2 years ago and she is still here. She has become part of our community and I have grown to really respect her and I thoroughly enjoy talking to her. She is someone who really is a thinker and I learn from her every time I get to chat with her. She knows I blog and I asked her if it is OK to blog about her and she said it was. So hello Susan, as you read this!
As part of the series conclusion this Sunday, Susan will be sharing some of her observations of our church community on mission from her study as an anthropologist. So that will be quite interesting.
And in the evening 7 PM gathering, Angie who cuts my hair will be there. Cutting my hair. I have been going to Angie for about 3 years. We have developed a friendship and she has never been to our church community gatherings and isn't part of a church. We have had some talks about Christianity and faith - and she also was part of the They Like Jesus But Not The Church DVD. So, as a way for her to finally experience our church community, she said she would come if I would get my hair cut. So if that is what it takes - then I shall have my hair cut this Sunday night in our church building as the worship gathering begins. She'll be bringing her barber stuff over and setting it up in our church building. I have really wanted Angie to experience the people of our church, what the whole vibe of the community is, our coffeehouse and art gallery. So now she shall as I sit and have my haircut as the gathering begins.
So, the life of mission is an adventure and this teaching series that ends tried to paint a holistic portrait of what that looks like. We used these diagrams below in the series.
We start with Jesus as He is the head of the church and the reason we are in existence and on mission.
Then we are Worshipers of God foremost. Worship will continue for all eternity. But we worship in Community - we are not meant to be in isolation. However, if we are only remain worshipers in community, we can slowly become inward focused singing-happy-shiny people who exist in our own Christian world. We may escape the happy-shiny-world to go do a service project every so often, but we run back into our happy-shiny worshiping community world.
That is why a worshiping community needs to be in the world on Mission as a lifestyle. But if we are on worshipers on mission who don't have Community nor are growing Theologically - then we can be missionally passionate, but burn out since we have no community to support us or we can be shallow if we aren't growing in Scripture. Another off-balance approach would be if we are in Community and Theologians - but we aren't in the world on mission and in the lives of people. So then we stay inward focused and over time we can become mean Bible-heads.
Now being a Bible-head is a really good thing as we need to saturate our minds with Scripture - so our hearts melt in worship to God and in love for people as Jesus said were the two greatest commands. I absolutely love apologetics too and my largest section of my bookshelf is books on apologetics by great and insightful apologetics writers. But if we only hang with each other that isn't the point of apologetics. And if we only hang out with each other, we slowly can become Christians with a lot of head knowledge but we don't have much love for people. Some of the meanest Christians I have ever met ironically were ones who knew the Bible really well. So knowing the Bible is not about simply gaining knowledge but for transforming our hearts to be worshipers of God whom loves the people He loves.
It needs to be holistic is what we have been trying to teach. Worshiping.. Community... Missional... Theologians... with Jesus as our head of the church and why we are doing what we do.
So, this Sunday should be a fun one. Wrapping up the teaching series. The artwork that was created during the series will be finished to be hanging up on the sanctuary walls. Getting a haircut during the beginning of the worship gathering and Angie seeing our church community. And interviewing an anthropology professor..... Fun fun.
