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.