Skip to main content

Camp

This September, my wife and I will lead our congregation's fall camp session. The theme as I have received it is "The Church," which does not seem overly exciting upon first hearing. But we will not discuss church as a flat subject; as something about which we already know all there is to know. Oh no; there will be plenty of twists and turns.

We will have four sessions, the last of which will be the camp's Sunday sermon. The topics will be these:

What is the Church? In this session we are going to gently pull back our standard answer and look beneath it to see that the church is simply the latest incarnation of the People of God. While God's plan was a mystery to Man, and the church is a central aspect of that mystery, the church itself remains as a link in the chain that God has used to bless creation from the beginning. We are not unique in the sense that our mission, our calling is the same as has been that of the People of God from the beginning.

Who is the Church? Here we are going to expand our understanding of who is in the church, or more appropriately, who might be said to be a follower of God even if they are not "officially" members of a church. We will spend some time in the first three chapters of John to get a better handle on what constitutes a God-follower. Maybe there are many more people in "the church" than we sometimes think there may be. If so, how does that affect my relationship to them?

Why the Church? What is the point of having a church anyway? In this session we will see that the purpose of the church is not significantly different than what has been the purpose of God's people through history. We are not a church for our own good, but rather we are the People of God for the purpose of extending God's reign in the world today, and for blessing the world as God would have it blessed through us. In this session we will also explore the idea that a blessing, once given, cannot be taken back. This session will explore how we bless others and will be conducted in separate men's and women's breakout groups.

Where Do I Fit In? Congregations hire Involvement Ministers so that their members can be assimilated and set to work in the church's ministries. We often hear of Christians figuring out what their gifts are and being placed in those spots within a congregation. We do this so often that many times new Christians, or even those who are simply new to a congregation ask "What can I do; where do I fit?" as though they are disoriented unless someone gives them a job to do. This seems to ask the wrong question. The point is not that need to fit into the kingdom; we are the kingdom. We need not fit, but rather simply be who we are called to be. See someone that needs a cup of water? Give it to them. Eventually, you will find yourself "fitting" just fine.

So those are the four sessions. The intent for this weekend is to do our part in tearing down the separation between being a God-follower and being a church member or a Christian in some technical sense. We will broaden our view of who we are, of who the church is, and of what our calling actually is in this place called Earth.

It should be fun; I'm looking forward to it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Obedience Rather Than Sacrifice

Saul it seems, was instructed to have the Israelite completely destroy the Amalekites – people and animals. Rather, Saul allowed the Israelites to capture the Amalekite king, and to bring back the choicest live stock. When Samuel returns to visit Saul, the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the cattle are clearly audible. Assuming that the Israelites had done what had been directed, Samuel finds this noise to be somewhat unexpected, and so he asks Saul to explain what has happened. Saul’s response is a two-parter. The first is that the people have brought back the best of the plunder to sacrifice it to God. The second is that Saul was afraid of the people and so he let them bring back the plunder [and in this explanation, we don’t know why]. Samuel’s response is his mission for God, and he will complete it. Samuel tells Saul that he has failed in his mission to destroy the Amalekites and as a result God has rejected him as king of Israel. In Samuel’s discussion with Saul, he says:

Elders redux

A reader (I am always amazed that people actually read this blog) submitted a rather long comment on the original post on Elders. It is apparent that the reader did some good homework as the comment has several, well, more than several, reference citations. It is clear that they both read the original post and did some Bible study before posting their comment. Because the comment was so long, I thought it appropriate to post another entry rather than bury the response in the comment log. In the following discussion, I have included the text of the comment without the Scripture references. If you want to read the comment in its entirety, scroll to the Elders post and click on the comment. --------------------------------------------------------- [Comment~~~~The church is expected to be a people in exactly this sense. We are the people of God who are charged with continuing and preserving the values, culture, hopes, and the identity of God’s people in our time.~~~~ Does this include th

Naaman's Dipping and Requests

The familiar story of Naaman dipping in the Jordan is a story with more than a few twists. Let's review the story first. Naaman we are told had been used by YHWH to punish Israel and our story describes him as a man of valor in high regard by his boss, the King of Syria the current thorn in the side of Israel. It turns out though that Naaman suffers from some sort of leprosy.  On one of Syria's raids into Israel, the Syrians captured an Jewish girl who had found her way into Naaman's household as a servant for his wife. Knowing of Naaman's illness, she suggests to her matron that there is a prophet in Israel who could help him. This message gets transmitted to Naaman who takes it to his boss. The boss - the king of Syria, tells Naaman to travel to Israel and gives him a letter to Israel's king directing that Naaman be healed. Upon Naaman's arrival in Israel he gives the letter to Israel's king who reacts in a panic. He does not even consider finding t