Hey, no I have not fallen off the face of the earth, but rather I am reworking my daily routine. In the past, my mornings were reading the Bible, pondering on the readings and then posting some thoughts. Now it is reading the Bible (still working slowly through Genesis), pondering a bit, and then reading books for my DMin courses.
The readings have been very good. Thus far I have been doing readings for my spiritual formation class. The emphasis has been on the importance of community in the spiritual formation process. I will be posting my thoughts on each book as I complete the writings.
I have been thinking a lot about community and its role in our life. I have never been one to place great emphasis on community, I don't/didn't see the value of it. However, in review some hermeneutic material I am reminded of the importance of story in our life. Not just our story, but the story of others. Together we shape and are shaped by these stories.
2 comments:
I read and hear the word "community" so much these days. No offense to you Scott, but sometimes I want to gag. I wonder what it really means? Do you want to define it for me?
We do community... We have community... Community happens... blaugggh... OK, I'm not really that bent out of shape over it, but...
When did this use of the word come into being? Is this megachurchese? Is there a better word? Why do I rebel against it? Maybe because I feel we've lost the idea of family. In our attempt to be sensitive to those who've had bad family experiences, we've missed a universally understood and biblical concept of family. I believe that even those who've never experienced a good family, understand it and deeply desire it.
Is there a good biblical case for using the word "community" over the word "family"?
DCE
DCE,
The context for my use of community is not to replace the word family. I have a family, but I live in community.
Community is/are the people whom we live with, interact with, work for/with. In the context that you spelled out sound like a megachurch context.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together (1954) describes Christianity as "community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ."
Gustavo Gutierrez in his book We Drink for Our Own Wells (1984) talks about community in this way. Spirituality is a community enterprise. It is the passage of a people through the solitude and dangers of the desert, as it carves out its own way in the following of Jesus Christ. This spiritual experience is the well from which we must drink. From it we draw the promise of resurrection.
You see community is not a simple catch phrase or some thing we do, rather community is part of who we are, it is the people and their stories that we invite into our life to shape us and transform us.
Jesus and the disciples lived in community, the early church was a community of believer living, ministering, and worshiping together.
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