Time

Time: something we all have, some a little, some more; time is with us every moment.  Sometimes time seems to drag by slowly, like when we are in hospital waiting to heal, other times it zips by in the blink of an eye.  And everyone agrees that the older you get the faster time goes by.

Last week, we were all reminded to change our clocks; and our clocks told us we had an extra hour last Sunday morning, an extra hour to do things we wanted to do right at that moment.  Today, as we remember the veterans who served in wars both long ago and recent, and as we join elderly Second World War vets, we see how the time that has marched by since the war has not dimmed their memories of the time spent in the horror of war.  Ask one of these vets about the time that has gone by and you might get a response like “it seems like only yesterday”.  Moments like these make us keenly aware of time.

Have you watched your child walk across the stage to get a graduation diploma? Don’t you play those few seconds in slow motion in your mind? Have you bitten into a peach and slowly sucked the juice and savoured every moment?  Have you watched in awe as the sun rises?  What moments time can give us!

In English we use “time” in different ways.  Time can be measured in hours and minutes, as in “what time is it?”  Or time can be a memory, as in “that was a great time we had yesterday”.

In New Testament Greek, time is a little more clearly expressed with two different terms.  We have “chronos” which we might call “clock time”, which measures time which passes by and answers the question “how much time?” And we have “kairos” which could literally be “fullness of time”, or “that special moment in time that you savour”.

It is interesting how often we savour a moment of time and call it “beautiful”.  The Greeks did too; their word for “beautiful” shares its root with the word for “hour”.  To be beautiful is to be “in one’s hour”.  A rose in bloom - fragile, fragrant, fleeting - is “in its hour”.  Someone young trying to look older, or someone old trying to look young; these are both offensive to this Greek idea of beauty.  To be truly beautiful, be “in your hour”.

We have all heard, "time is what you make of it". We all have to deal with “chromos” time as it marches by.  And sometimes we think that we can help it pass by pleasantly by entertaining ourselves with things or toys.  But it still passes by and we feel that something is missing.

If we choose, on the other hand, to see what we can do for others, to bring beauty to someone else’s life, we discover moments of beauty, moments of fullness of time.  We can also receive these moments of fullness of time in meditation and in contemplation, which is also known as contemplative prayer.  And in times of true worship, we can experience moments of fullness of time.

“Chronos” time happens to you; it happens to all of us.  Seeking to have entertainment happen to us leaves us empty as the time marches by.  “Kairos” time happens in you.  The fullness of time grows from within, and expresses the moment of beauty in blessing others.

Think about it.  Whatever time you have is yours.  You can let it happen to you; or you can seek to have it grow in fullness of time within you.  It’s up to you.

Celebrating Thanksgiving

When we say “Thank you”, we are acknowledging that someone has done something good for us, and we are reflecting just a token of that goodness back.  On this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, as we enjoy turkey feasts with family, let’s think about what it means to say “Thank you” to God.

We are told God created man “in his own image”.  What do you suppose “in his own image” means?  When you look in a mirror, what do you see?  You see your own image.

Just maybe we were created to be mirrors for God, to see the goodness of God, the love of God reflected.  We were created to reflect God back to God in worship, and to reflect God to others around us through blessing them and to reflect God into the rest of creation in stewardship. 

We are told over and over that God is love; therefore, we were created to be mirrors, to reflect God’s love back to God, and reflect God’s love to all around us.

Jesus said in Matt 22:37-39: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’”

Jesus told us this is what we are supposed to do because that’s how God loves us, and we were created to be mirrors to reflect God’s love back to God. And we are also to reflect God’s goodness and love to those around us [Love your neighbour... ], and also reflect God’s goodness and love to ourselves [... as yourself].

Why haven’t we been doing that? Well for one thing, I think we have been following Adam and Eve’s example and gulping down the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  We have made religion all about rules of what’s right and what’s wrong, who’s good and who’s bad, judging ourselves and judging others.  After we have gorged ourselves on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we are so busy judging right and wrong, judging who’s good and who’s bad, that we get distracted from what we were created to do: reflect God’s love and goodness.

So reflecting the goodness of God and the love of God back to God is how we worship.  Consider Hebrews 12:28, 29 (Wright’s translation): “Well, then: we are to receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken!  This calls for gratitude!  That’s how to offer God true and acceptable worship, reverently and with fear.  Our God, you see, is a devouring fire.”

What about our God being a devouring fire?  How does that reckon with the statement that God is love? How can we say “God is love” and also say “God is a devouring fire”?

Recently Pastor Jeff talked about trying to contain God’s love being like trying to hold Niagara Falls in a teacup.  Could it be that God’s love is so huge, so all consuming, so intense, that we just can’t look at it directly? 

Perhaps the writer of Hebrews imagines love so intense it is like a devouring fire, love so intense you can’t look at it directly, but worship reverently and with fear.

Do you like the warmth of the sun on a nice summer day? Have you tried staring at the sun?  Imagine God’s love, like that, only a whole lot more so; God’s love showers us with warmth and goodness, but it is so intense and powerful that we humans just cannot bear to look at it directly.

So the writer of Hebrews tells us that being deeply thankful to God for his awesome and overwhelming love is “how to offer God true and acceptable worship, reverently and with fear”.

A deep, deep thankfulness cannot be contained; it just has to overflow to pour out blessings on others.

On this Thanksgiving weekend, take away this thought: Saying “thank you” is reflecting back a little of the goodness done for you.  As humans, we have been created to be little mirrors to reflect the goodness of God, the love of God, back to God, to others and finally to ourselves.

And so finally, have a wonderful Thanksgiving Sunday; be the mirror you were created to be.  And just go out and bless someone!

Adam and Eve's downfall

Most of us are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve disobeying God and eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Have you ever wondered, of all the trees, why would God pick this one? Why wouldn’t God want people to know good and evil?  Richard Rohr, in his book “Things Hidden” provides us with some thoughts on this that might be helpful:

“We hear our story of humanity’s original sin in Genesis 2.  But this sin, as we’ve called it, really doesn’t look like sin at all; in fact, wanting knowledge feels like virtue! Hasn’t that ever bothered you? “You may eat indeed of all of the trees in the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat” (Genesis 2:17).  Now why would that be a sin? It sounds like a good thing!

“In the seminary we called it moral theology.  We ate bushels of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, trying to decide who was good and who was bad.  On other levels, it unfortunately refined and even created the very judgmental mind that Jesus strictly warned against (See Matthew 7:1,2: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you").

“But when we lead off with our judgments, love will seldom happen.  If the mind that needs to make moral judgments about everything is the master instead of the servant, religion is almost always corrupted.

“Some would think that is the whole meaning of Christianity, to be able to decide who’s going to heaven and who isn’t.  This is much more a search for control than it is a search for truth, love or God.”

Rohr continues:

“I guess God knew that would be the direction that religion would take.  So God said, “Don’t do it. Don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” What he’s trying to keep us from is a lust for certitude, an undue need for explanation, resolution and answers.  Frankly, it makes biblical faith impossible.

“The major heresy of the Western churches is that they have largely turned around the very meaning of faith, not knowing and not needing to know, into its exact opposite - demanding to know and insisting that I do know!  The original sin, brilliantly described, warned us against this temptation at the very beginning.”

Rohr concludes:

“So you see perhaps why false moral certitude is presented at the very beginning of the Bible as the original sin.  It clears the way for faith, hope and love, all three (see 1 Corinthians 13:13).”

This is a humbling and sobering thought: the original sin is setting myself up as knowing with certainty what is right and what is wrong and judging everyone accordingly! 

And any moral certainty I might think I have can block the way of deep faith, certainly blocks the way of humility and very certainly blocks the way of love.  Something to think about.

(Rohr, Richard: "Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality", pages 37-39, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2007)

Don't Just Worship, Follow Jesus

Richard Rohr challenges us with this meditation:

"It seems to me that it is a minority that gets the true and full gospel. We just keep worshiping Jesus and arguing over the right way to do it. The amazing thing is that Jesus never once says 'worship me!' He says, 'follow me'"

For example, Matthew 4:19 says: “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” (NIV)

Rohr continues: "Christianity is a lifestyle—a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into a clever 'religion,' in order to avoid the lifestyle itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain, and still believe that Jesus is their 'personal Lord and Savior.' The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great."

Sobering thoughts, and a challenge to really "follow Jesus".

What Inspires You?

This excerpt from the editorial, written by Rev. Sam Chaise, General Secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries, in this summer’s “Mosaic” magazine, seems especially appropriate to us at Community Life Church, as it really fits with what Pastor Jeff has been saying.

"What sort of a god would make something that looks like this?"  That was what I heard in the midst of silence as I gazed, two summers ago, at a sunset framed by ocean and mountains. I was in the midst of a difficult time in my life, having faced much loss, and it had shaken my faith in the goodness of God. As I stared into the stunning vista in front of me, the question wafted into my consciousness: what sort of god would make something that looks like this? Something so beautiful, so lavish?  And I realized that, even if I was someone who knew nothing about God, the sheer beauty of what I was seeing would lead me to believe that whoever made it was good.

I am inspired by beauty, especially by beauty in nature. Each of us is inspired in different ways, and it is important for us to discover them and nurture them so that we can be sustained in the work God calls us to do.

"Inspire" literally means to "breathe in."

It is about being filled with something from the outside that animates and enlivens us inside. Just as oxygen vitalizes our bodies, inspiration enlivens our souls. In the beginning, God breathed life into earth-matter and the first humans were created.  Today, we can breathe in the Spirit and be filled. Body-soul inspiration ultimately comes from God. The deepest and longest-lasting inspiration comes from breathing in God himself, and breathing in the new things that God is doing in us and around us.

From Truth to Love

N. T. Wright is the former Anglican Bishop of Durham, England, and author of more than thirty books. He is considered one of the foremost New Testament scholars, but in spite of his scholarship, his writing is clear and understandable.  His book “Simply Christian” is a clear summary of our faith.  In the first section, he touches on the issue of truth.

“Over the last generation in Western culture, truth has been like the rope in a tug-of-war contest.  On the one hand, some want to reduce all truth to ‘facts’, things that can be proved in the way you can prove that oil is lighter than water, or even that two and two make four.  On the other hand, some believe that all truth is relative, and that all claims to truth are merely coded claims to power.  Ordinary mortals, dimly aware of this tug-of-war, and its social, cultural and political spin-offs, may well feel some uncertainty about what truth is, while still knowing that it matters,

“The sort of thing we could and should mean by ‘truth’ will vary according to what we’re talking about.  If I want to go into town, it matters whether the person who has told me to take the number 53 bus is speaking the truth or not.

“But by no means all truth is of that kind, or testable in the same way. If there’s any truth lying behind the quest for justice, it is that the world isn’t meant to be morally chaotic; but what do we mean be ‘meant’, and how do we know?  If there’s any truth in the thirst for spirituality, it could be simply that humans find satisfaction in exploring a ‘spiritual’ dimension to their lives, or it could be that we are made for relationship with another Being who can only be known that way.

“And, talking of relationships, the ‘truth’ of a relationship is in the relationship itself, in being ‘true’ to one another, which is considerably more than (though presumably it includes) telling each other the truth about the number 53 bus. . . .

“What we mean by ‘know’ is likewise further in need of investigation.  To ‘know’ the deeper truths we have been hinting at is much like ‘knowing’ a person - something which takes a long time, a lot of trust, and a good deal of trial and error - and less like ‘knowing’ the right bus to take into town.  It’s the kind of knowing in which the subject and object are intertwined, so that you could never say that it was either purely subjective or purely objective

“One good word for this deeper and richer kind of knowing, the kind that goes with the deeper and richer kind of truth, is ‘love’.”

- From “SIMPLY CHRISTIAN: Why Christianity makes sense”, by N. T. Wright, published by Harper Collins, 2006, pages 50 and 51

Change and Transformation

There is a subtle difference between change and transformation.  Change usually involves getting rid of something and exchanging it for something else.  If you change your address, you leave your old address and move into your new one.  If you change your shirt, you take one off and put another one on.  Transformation takes what you have and reshapes it into something different.

Change can happen to us; transformation happens in us.

At Community Life Church, we have been making a lot of changes.  The changes have not been made rashly or without much prayer and planning.  The changes are being made to do what we can to make our little group of believers more effective instruments for the work of the Holy Spirit in our community.  And through all these changes, we hope that we can be transformed personally, to be personally more in tune with the working of God’s Spirit.

Richard Rohr has some comments on transformation:  “But mere change might or might not be accompanied by authentic inner transformation. If change does not include personal transformation, we do not actually grow, we just grudgingly adjust.”

Throughout our changes, we each need to be open to personal transformation.  If we don’t, we might wind up doing little more than “grudgingly adjust”.

Our egos often get in the way of personal transformation through change. In self importance, we can quickly look on ourselves as victims in change.  Or, if we are pushing for the change, we can become bullies as victors in change.  Whenever change is going on, we all need a hefty dose of grace: to accept change gracefully and not be victims, to initiate change gracefully and not be victors.

Richard Rohr notes: “Change is one thing the ego hates more than anything. The ego fights, avoids, and denies the necessity or advantage of any real transformation, which is why true spiritual growth is so rare and the Gospel is so hard to hear. The ego prefers the status quo—even when it is killing us.”

Something to think about.

Being Ordinary is Special

Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Friar, helps us see that each of us, very ordinary people, living our very ordinary lives, each one is very special to God.  Here are some of his quotes to think about.

"It’s a gift to joyfully recognize and accept our own smallness and ordinariness. Then you are free with nothing to live up to, nothing to prove, and nothing to protect. Such freedom is my best description of Christian maturity, because once you know that your “I” is great and one with God, you can ironically be quite content with a small and ordinary “I.” No grandstanding is necessary. Any question of your own importance or dignity has already been resolved once and for all and forever."

 "One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life, and not through purity codes and moral achievement contests, which are seldom achieved anyway… We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking… The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly the mystery of our own reality."

Wise Words from Abraham Lincoln

These wise words from one of America's great presidents would be good advice for any church at any time in any century.

 

 

"There is enough bad in the best of us and good in the worst of us that it behooves all of us to speak no ill about any of us." - Abraham Lincoln.

The Right Hand of Fellowship

Galatians 2:9 says “James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews.”

What is “the right hand of fellowship”?

It was a common practice among the Hebrews and Greeks, indicating a pledge of friendship.

Doesn’t “the right hand of fellowship” mean, “now you are a member of the church”?

For a lot of people this is what it has come to mean.  Many people seem to think that before you receive the right hand of fellowship, you were outside the church, then after this special handshake, you are in the church.

Well isn’t that what it means?

If it does, then we are missing the point.  It was supposed to mean a pledge of friendship, a pledge to support one another, a pledge to encourage one another.  And especially, it is supposed to mean that those who have been on this journey longer will pledge help, advice, support and encouragement to those who are learning, who are younger, who have their own individual struggles.

Are you saying that a “pledge of friendship” is more important than “membership”?

“Membership” says that either you are “in” or you are “out”.  The early church in Acts worked very hard to break down the barriers of who is “in” and who is “out”, and we have decided that we want to be a church that breaks down those same barriers, those same fences that keep some in and some out.

So are you saying “membership” can be a barrier?

In an earlier blog we looked at “wells and fences”.  Farmers all across North America put fences around their farms to keep their animals inside the fence and other animals out.  In Australia, where farms are much larger, the farmer has no fence but digs a well of precious water in the middle of his farm.  His animals never stray too far from the precious water.  And other animals may come and drink there too.

We have asked ourselves, do we want to be a “fence” church, where membership and other attitudes can be our fence to keep some animals in and keep out animals not just like us? Or do we want to be a “well” church, where the good news of Jesus Christ is our well and any and every animal that is thirsty can come and drink of our well?

We have made a very conscious decision to try to become a “well” church.  It takes a while to break down the fences, but we are working at it.

The Colours of Truth

Isaac Newton (1643 to 1727) had a huge influence on all civilization and how we look at things.  His ideas in science on how the universe is ordered were enormously influential in “The Age of Enlightenment”, shaped by a group of intellectuals in the 1700’s who sought to mobilize the power of reason to reform society and advance knowledge, especially in Europe. 

These people shaped a world view that lasted for two centuries: the world view of Moderns was shaped by how these people saw truth.   The thinking established at that time has influenced how we believe truth to be in our Christian faith even today.

People influenced by Modern thinking see truth as something that can be proved, or measured or documented; truth is objective.  When Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life” perhaps how we look at truth has put Jesus’ words in too small a box.

Here is an illustration that might help.  Under the sea, most of the spectrum of light is soon scattered or absorbed; green light penetrates the deepest into the ocean. The first picture shows sea anemones on the sternpost of a shipwreck 85 feet below the surface, where only green light penetrates. Everything looks green.

The second picture, of the same sea anemones, is taken with flash, which has the full spectrum of light. The same sea anemones now have bright pastel colors. Which is truth?

Both are true.  When we only had green light shining on them, the anemones looked green; when we had the full spectrum of light shining on them, they showed many colours.

When we look at truth with only the colour of objectivity, as moderns have been taught to do, we see truth in just that color. If we add the colors of creativity, imagination, beauty, awe, relationships, love, and perhaps other colors that you can think of, then truth can become much brighter, richer and more colourful.  When Jesus said “I am the truth”, perhaps this is even more awesome and richer a statement than we have been taught.

Can we learn to look at truth with more colors than objectivity alone? Will truth be more beautiful and powerful if we do?

Contributed by Eric

Wise Words from Desmond Tutu

The most Reverend Dr. Desmond Tutu is a South African activist and Christian clergyman who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. He was the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa, and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Chruch of Southern Africa).

As we look at the explosion of growth of the Christian faith all over the word, and its stagnancy in North America, perhaps we can learn a few things from our brothers and sisters across the sea.  Perhaps we in North America have tried to contain God in too small a box; just maybe God is more awesome, more wonderful, with capacity for infinitely greater love than we have been taught to believe.

In the words of Desmond Tutu:

“Surely it is good to know that God (in the Christian tradition) created us all (not just Christians) in his image, thus investing us all with infinite worth, and that it was with all humankind that God entered into a covenant relationship, depicted in the covenant with Noah when God promised he would not destroy his creation again with water. Surely we can rejoice that the eternal word, the Logos of God, enlightens everyone -- not just Christians, but everyone who comes into the world; that what we call the Spirit of God is not a Christian preserve, for the Spirit of God existed long before there were Christians, inspiring and nurturing women and men in the ways of holiness, bringing them to fruition, bringing to fruition what was best in all. We do scant justice and honor to our God if we want, for instance, to deny that Mahatma Gandhi was a truly great soul, a holy man who walked closely with God. Our God would be too small if he was not also the God of Gandhi: if God is one, as we believe, then he is the only God of all his people, whether they acknowledge him as such or not. God does not need us to protect him. Many of us perhaps need to have our notion of God deepened and expanded. It is often said, half in jest, that God created man in his own image and man has returned the compliment, saddling God with his own narrow prejudices and exclusivity, foibles and temperamental quirks. God remains God, whether God has worshippers or not.”

Hurricanes of Change

On Wednesday we saw how Hurricane Mitch, which flooded Honduras, changed the course of the Choluteca River so that the sturdy, well designed and well built bridge no longer spanned the river.

Back through history, every few hundred years a hurricane of change has blown through civilization altering its course massively.  This is not unusually evil, nor is it especially good.  The changes can have horribly evil consequences, but some good things can happen too. But after the hurricanes, civilizations are changed.  The pattern we see is that these hurricanes of change accompany changes in how civilizations handle information.

An early hurricane took place about 2,500 BC when writing was invented.  This completely changed how society handled information and allowed for all sorts of changes to take place:

Another smaller hurricane occurred about 500 AD when political rulers fully realized the power of controlling information.  When Constantine adopted Christianity, it was not all good; he used Christianity for military and political advantage, a gross distortion of the good news of Jesus:

We had a hurricane blow through civilization about 500 years ago, rather coincidentally, with the invention of the printing press.  This meant information could no longer be controlled by the privileged few; books and ideas could be spread by the printing press. The time became ripe for the Reformation, with all its changes in Theology, and then the Age of Enlightenment, which spawned the Modern Era:

In the Twentieth Century, discoveries in physics shook up the certainty of the Moderns, making conditions ripe for another hurricane, the eye of which is the explosion of the internet, which, by the way, is a very new and very different way of handling information:

Post-Moderns and those who follow them have and will have a very different world view from that of Moderns.  It is not necessarily a better world view, nor a worse world view; but it is different and may become increasingly different, arising in large part from accepting and dealing with information differently.

At Community Life Church, we realize that we must see what is going on in this latest hurricane, which may last for many years, if we are to relate to our Post-Modern generation, if we are to play our part in lifting individuals and communities in our society during and after this current hurricane of change. We don’t have all the answers as to what this will look like, but we are counting on Post-Moderns themselves to help us on this journey.

The Bridge

What’s wrong with this bridge?



There is nothing wrong with the bridge.  It is a perfectly fine structure, spanning a river that used to be but is no longer there.

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch roared across the Caribbean and dumped over six feet of water on Honduras.  The massive flooding from the hurricane changed the course of the Choluteca River so that the bridge no longer spanned the river.

Many people feel that the church in North America is like this bridge.  A massive hurricane has been blowing through civilization radically changing its course.  The church, a perfectly fine structure, is spanning a civilization that is no longer where the church was built to serve it.

Finding and reaching the new course of civilization and of our society is a challenge that we at Community Life Church accept.  We don’t fully know where this will take us, but we do know that continuing to span a society that used to be is not going to be much good to anybody.

Our focus on “passionate next generations” is part of it, but we are sure there will be more to learn and do as we seek to be the church that lifts up people of twenty-first century society, to help them to be the people that God has always intended that they could be.

Birds of a Feather

We’ve all heard the saying “Birds of a feather flock together”.

People who think like us, want the same things, talk and act like us; these people make us feel better about ourselves.  People who are different, whose thoughts, feelings and desires are different make us feel insecure and uncertain about ourselves.

 A “birds-of-a-feather church” is a comfortable church, in which we can feel secure and pat each other on the back because we all think the same way.  A “birds-of-a-feather church” doesn’t take kindly to having among them people who don’t think and act just the way they do.  But it is a church which has no self-confidence to reach out and accept others who might think and act differently.

Romans 15:7 - “Accept one another, then, just as Christ has accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”

 Look at Romans 15:7 again.  Key here is “as Christ has accepted you”.  Acceptance of others comes directly out of having been accepted by Christ.  When we know He has accepted us, we are freed from the need to prove to ourselves and to others that we are right.  This frees us to accept others. Because we are accepted.

 At Community Life Church, we want to be able to make this statement:  “Christ has accepted me, as I was, as I am, and as I am striving to become.  No matter how different you and I may look at things, I accept you”.

And to back this up, we put in our doctrinal statement that it is okay to have questions and doubts as we dig deeper into our faith, and it is okay to disagree with one another within the unity of our fellowship.  The purpose of this is to try to create a safe place within our fellowship for people to ask questions and wrestle with their doubts, for that is the way to build a stronger faith.

At Community Life Church, we want to welcome “birds with different feathers”.

Wells and Fences

Farmers often put fences around their property to keep their animals in and other animals out.  In the Australian Outback, ranch properties are very large and fencing is impractical.  So a farmer creates a well, a precious water supply.  The farmer’s livestock, though they may stray some, will never roam too far from the precious water supply.  Not only the farmer’s animals, but other animals find water there too.

Churches can be like these farms.  A “fence church” sets up a fence, all sorts of rules for being accepted or rejected.  You are in or you are out.  It might be quite judgmental: if you are in, you are a good church person, if you are out, you must be a bad person.  If you are “in”, you are automatically better than someone who is “out”.  A “fence church” has figured out a socially acceptable standard by which to exclude certain kinds of people.

A “well church” recognizes that the good news is so precious, so refreshing, that, like a well, it will keep those who thirst for it from straying far from it.  This is truly a Christ-centered model.  Rather than seeing people as Christian or non-Christian, as “in” or “out”, a “well church” sees people as being on their journey toward Christ; some know it, but some don’t yet know it and need a little encouragement to get on board with this same journey.

A “fence church” sets people up to be judges they are not called to be; to judge who are in and who are out, who are “sheep” and who are “goats”.  And often these criteria are man-made and artificial and convenient for those who are “in”.  And often others, who are not church members, are left feeling that they are viewed as not “good enough” to go to church there.  

Just as in the Australian farm, all animals may drink at the well, whether they belong to the farm or not.  In a “well church” all are welcome to drink of the good news, whether they are on a membership list or not, and it is recognized that we are all imperfect, with flaws and failings, all struggling just to try to be a decent person.  Since there is no “in” or “out”, we have less basis to judge one another.

To tear down fences, we have broken down barriers membership usually builds up.  At Community Life Church, people who are interested in being involved with our church family can take part in business meetings whether they are members or not.  We made a direct effort to set things up to be able to do our business that way.

Those who drink at the good news well, and relish that well of Jesus, discover that there is always something they can do to become more like Jesus, to show more of Christ’s radical lifestyle (love, generosity, healing, hospitality, forgiveness, mercy, peace, and more).  And as their lives live these traits, others see the difference and look for that well too. 

At Community Life Church, we want to be a “well church”.  What would you like to be?

The Stump and the Sapling

Welcome to the blog of “Community Life Church”.  We are located right in the middle of Grand Manan Island, way out in the Bay of Fundy.

You may wonder about the picture in this blog: a sapling growing out of an old stump. That’s the picture we have for our church: out of the stump of “Grand Harbour Baptist Church”, we are growing the sapling of “Community Life Church”. 

Grand Harbour Baptist Church was established in 1864 and has a rich heritage in our community. Many of our forefathers and mothers grew up, were married, attended, raised families and were buried in Grand Harbour Baptist Church.  This venerable church served them well in their time. But for the last twenty years a growing number of people in the church have had the uneasy feeling that this could be a dying church.

Added to that concern was the realization that for more and more people, the church in general had become, for them, irrelevant.  A little tinkering with programs, worship styles and service times wasn’t going to make much of a difference.  We had basically lost a generation, and it didn’t look like it was going to get any better. Looking squarely into the face of time we could see that we were less than a generation away from extinction.

About two years ago, Grand Harbour Baptist Church decided to focus on “children, youth and young families”, our “next generations”.  It didn’t take too long to realize that you cannot make your “next generations” into your “past generations”; it won’t work.  It would take a new church with a new way to serve to make a difference with the next generations.

But there was so much to be thankful for in our old church, even if it has been dying. After pondering what to do, we decided “Let’s grow a new church out of the old one, just like a fresh new sapling can grow out of an old stump”.

And that, with God’s help, is what we are seeking to do.