Upon reflecting on the recent post by Jed and the sermons linked therein, a thought has risen in my heart. TJP cannot be a church for sometime, if ever, but it can be a community of formation. It can be a community committed to action, formation, reality, and grace without at this point being a church. These sermons by Mark Driscoll, and the obvious distance we all stand from the requirements of 1 Timothy 3, challenged me to reflect not only on the fact that I stood at a distance from these requirements, but also the bridge that brought me from here to there was not going to be built merely by imagining it. It would require a plan, it would require resources, and it would require action. We do not "grow up into Christ" by mere wishful thinking, but as Paul admonished Timothy "discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness." It is equally as clear that formation is not intended to occur merely as isolated ascetics buried in a cell in some barren Egyptian desert. Formation requires community. I have also been reflecting on my experiences at the Institute for Spiritual Formation, and some of the formational dynamics that have occured within that community, and I realized that there are sufficient resources for us to form this kind of community.
So like I said to bridge the character gap that exists between the requirements of godly leaders and our own banal selves we need a plan, resources, and action. This is my proposal then: I have a virtual cornucopia of resources that we could use (literary, electronic, personal), We could commit initially to meeting once a quarter for a day. In the meantime we could read certain books, listen to certain lectures, and develop prayer projects which we journal about. Then at the end of the quarter we could come together for prayer, fellowship, and food, in which we prayerfully share about our experiences over the past quarter (such as what we learned from our readings/sermons/lectures, what God was revealing to us in prayer, etc...) and reflect back to each other as the Spirit led. And perhaps in doing so "we will not 'seek health rather than sickness, wealth rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long life rather than a short one, and so on in all other matters.' Rather, we will 'desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we were created.'" ~ St. Ignatius of Loyola
There certainly could be a more "line-item" articulation of what this could be like, but as a rough sketch what do you guys think?
P.S. I would like to involve our wives in this, this would mean we would have to be aware of certain dynamics, and work so that transparency and "the real" are articulated, this may mean at quarterly meetings we could break off into guys and wives so that full transparency is possible.
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4 comments:
So would the 'plan' initiate with these quarterly meetings that you suggest? And the in-between 'formation' time spent apart would be speant reading specific books/articles/journaling/prayer and meditation?
Would we all be reading the same thing? Like all of us reading 'Overcoming Sin and Temptation' or something of the like?
IF the answer to all of these is yes, than how do we all utilize these virtual resources that you have access to?
I think this is a great idea. It's a simple way for us to maintane a strong spiritual community within TJP even though all of us live in different places, have completely different schedules or what have you. And I'm all for the wives being involved.
This entire idea is exactly what churches should do with their members. I know the times where I've grown the most have been when the church has provided intimate settings for groups to be taught and pray with mature leaders and teachers. Really, it has happened the most when I was with a smaller church.
Anyways, the idea of TJP being a church is a thought that is far away from being a reality. But I still don't think we should axe it just yet.
I'm not suggesting axing the church idea, actually just the opposite, if we are to head in that direction we need to be on a trajectory of formation into the image of Christ and under the demands of 1 Tim 3, so I figured in the in-between time we could bridge it with this sort of community commitment.
I am completely on board with what Sam is talking about. I think that the church-plant is a few years off, and it might not be the direction that all of us head in, or we might plant more than one, who knows. In the mean-time, I really believe that we all need to take serious strides towards maturity in Christ. The requirements of I Tim 3 are something we need to move towards, because the underlying principles are the measure of a mature believer.
Me like.
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