FRONTLINE S.M.E.A.C.

In the war on spiritual apathy there is only one rule for me... everyone fights, no one quits. if you quit your dead. and if you die there are only 1 of 2 ways you will go! i fight for the Kingdoms sake, a weapon in the kings arsenal. i am the Soldier of Truth.

Monday, 2 April 2007

Intentional Christian Community???

over the past few weeks i have become more and more disenchanted with church. i have been disenchanted by corporate, small and many other forms of the way WE do community. i have come to feel that we do a version of community that is very individual and very dare i say it Post-Modern.

we have said that we are an intentional community at EBC however i am not certain that we are. i believe that most of us who are searching are wrestling with the questions i am wrestling with. the main question that i have at the moment is what is an intentional community and how will EBC become more intentional in the way we become followers of Jesus in Eltham? what will it look like? what will we have to sacrifice? what will we gain?

posted by Soldier of Truth @ 18:10  

6 Comments:

  • At 4 April 2007 at 12:32 pm , Blogger Ludicrousity said...

    I tend to agree, but I aso think you are a bit harsh on our community at times. I think it is more a matter that a lot of people don't know what to do. It's hard to something you've never had role modeled to you. Not to say that everyone is on board with intentional community, but the majority of peopel I talk to are, they just dont' know how to, it seems like a big out there thing that they can't get a handle on. I think the question we need to ask ourselves is: What am I doing to change that culture? It starts with you (me).

     

  • At 5 April 2007 at 12:41 am , Blogger Soldier of Truth said...

    i believe that you are right... it does start with the individual. We have just being talking about this as a micro-church and we came to a point of confession and prayer acknowledging that we had to get right with God and then intentionally be in relationship. We may not have had it modelled but we can't let the next generation down by continuing not to model it. We need to take responsibility for finding out how to do it, we are adults now and we have to take responsibility for our own actions.

    as far as not knowing how to the apostles in acts 1 didn't know how to be christians either. they just prayed and felt it out as the spirit led. We have a very useful guide, the bible, see Acts 2 and read about how thte first church did it. We need to ask ourselves how we translate that into our culture and how it will look for each INDIVIDUAL as well as in a corporate structure.

    "i don't know how to do it" works for baby christians. if we are as we say we are a spiritually Mature community of believers then the question should be not "i don't know..." but "i am giving this a go..."

    I'm not perfect here but as a micro-church community we committed ourselves to growing in intentionality, who will join us?

     

  • At 5 April 2007 at 10:33 am , Blogger Ludicrousity said...

    I'm not saying we have an excuse and a reason not to act because we haven't had it modelled, just saying that it makes it harder, and it means more mistakes along the journey to figuring out what it all looks like. But we should go for it. We shoudl change the culture and work towards a real community with God at the centre where we truly love each other.

     

  • At 5 April 2007 at 2:25 pm , Blogger Soldier of Truth said...

    it is the mistakes that make the journey. if we are not willing to stumble though then what are we doing as christians?

     

  • At 11 April 2007 at 4:15 pm , Blogger Steve Chatelier said...

    SOT -- there's no doubt community building is a really, really tough process!

    I can understand your frustration. I wonder if these thoughts help?

    In his recent book Exiles, Michael Frost talks of his own journey as a pastor. He comments on the fact that in the 80s and early-mid 90s, the in thing was to "create community". What he discovered was that whenever the end goal is to create community, the end will never be achieved.

    He now believes that communitas is the answer. Groups of people who have a purpose and focus outside of themselves tend to incidentally create strong communities where people have struggled together, cried together, fought etc in pursuit of another purpose.

    So, when we talk of intentional community, what does that actually mean? That the micro-church or small group or whatever intends that they will be a community? My guess is that Frost and Hirsch would argue that the intention needs to relate to something outside of the group of people themselves.

     

  • At 20 February 2008 at 4:21 am , Blogger Frank said...

    You should really read my blog, I think it may help on this matter.
    jflee72.freeblogit.com
    be sure to tell me what you think.

     

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