Class Reflections
Mondays are my major “class days” where I’m in class for 9 hours straight, and then meetings, and work surround that. Its pretty much a whole week’s worth of work crammed into one day. While I really like having the rest of the week to prepare for my Mondays, I rarely have enough time to catch my breathe and reflect on what is being discussed in my classes. So here it goes – a complete rambling; samples from my classes today.
Organic Church Planting (9am-11:30am) – My classmates and I shared personal struggles and joys we are having in our inner spiritual journey as well as how we are beginning to engage in the world around us. Afterward, a man named Darell Martin came and shared with us about his longings to reach out to the lost in other religions, and how simple church might offer some insight into “life evangelism” (letting the shape and function of a community to speak the words of Christ to the lost). I was amazed to learn that “simple, house churches” were in the early stages of a movement back in the hippie days with the Jesus Movement. I’m thankful that they went before me, and now I have seasoned veterans like Kent Smith and Darell who have tried some of these experiments before.
Christian Spiritual Formation (12pm-3pm) – Powerful conversations on a visible model for spiritual formation in churches. We talked about how important radical discipleship is (church statisticians report that there is basically no moral difference between the church and the general public), but then we coupled this need with the caution of the “Boston Movement’s Story” (which authoritatively abused its members with cult-like discipleship). Where can we find that balance? Are we looking more like the leader of some organization, or more like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
After class, I had a short conversation with a fellow classmate who was talking about his experience with non-institutional churches of Christ (of which I am a descendant from!), and how the younger leaders of this fellowship are very open to simple and organic churches. VERY INTERESTING that I am so drawn to such a church model, since I spent my developing years (until age 17 ) inside this extremely conservative, yet extremely democratic church type.
I’m still waiting for Narrative Evangelism, which is my last class today – but I figured I might share my insights of a regular Monday with you, since I’m usually giving my blog little attention during my class day. Blessings!
