kairos [ community ]

This Friday night, March 30, we will meet at Waldos’ on our usual schedule: arrive 6-6:30, supper, and then worship at 7. As we prepare for Holy Week, our focus will be on Jesus, meditating on the mysteries of Christ in song, art, and word. Please r.s.v.p. If you need directions or other information, call Bob at 267.377.7192.

We have two special opportunities coming up during Holy Week:

April 6 (Good Friday) – Prayer and Scripture Walk at Fletchers’. On Good Friday, Jesus carried his cross through the streets to Calvaray. To remember his passion, we’ll take a walk into Peace Valley Park to hear the story and pray. Our supper will be intentionally simple on this solemn night, and will be provided, no need to cook or shop! Do bring a flashlight for the path. Note: We’ll gather by 6:30 for the prayer walk followed by supper, a break from our usual pattern!

April 7 (Easter Saturday) – Easter Vigil at St. Luke Lutheran, Dublin, at 6:30 p.m.. If you’ve never been to a Vigil, it’s a wonderful service, one of the most ancient in the Christian tradition. Of course, we will give it our usual Christians * at * Large spin. The service includes the return of the light after Good Friday, retelling key parts of God’s story of salvation, remembering our baptism, and celebrating Christ’s resurrection. The service should be about an hour. And some of the former St. James band will get together to provide music for the service. We’re going to make it family and kid friendly by involving families in retelling parts of the story, and we’ll keep it to about an hour and finish with dessert. We still need some individuals/families/groups to be part of the story telling or of other parts of the service; contact Maria or Suzanne for more info.

We’re going to celebrate an Easter Vigil service on Easter Saturday, April 7. If you’ve never been to a Vigil, it’s a wonderful service, one of the most ancient in the Christian tradition. Of course, we will give it our usual Christians * at * Large spin. The service includes the return of the light after Good Friday, retelling key parts of God’s story of salvation, remembering our baptism, and celebrating Christ’s resurrection. We’re going to make it family and kid friendly by involving families in retelling parts of the story, and we’ll keep it to about an hour and finish with dessert. So mark your calendar and watch your email for more information. If you’d like to be part of the story telling or of other parts of the service, contact Maria or Suzanne. (Need contact info; call Bob at 267-377-7192 or email cal@liveservegrow.info.)

This Friday night we’ll be at Fishers’ on our usual schedule — dinner at 6-ish, worship at 7:15 -ish. Need directions? Call Bob at 267-377-7192. Maria and Pete are on for worship, and we’ll focus on Acts 10, the story of Peter and Cornelius. This is a pivotal moment in the life of the young church, as Peter has to confront some long-held notions. It’s a great story of the Spirit’s leading and the church’s ability to adapt to what the Spirit is doing.

I was really hoping that I wouldn’t need my snowblower for this one, but it appears the Spirit has other plans. So we’re canceling tonight, and going to our snow date of tomorrow night (March 17), 6 p.m., at Betsy Waldo’s. Please be safe getting home today, and stay warm and dry. Have a cup o’ hot chocolate tonight and, though it’s not as much fun as C*A*L, check out the www.pray-as-you-go.org devotion. See you tomorrow night if you can make it!

Reminder: Next Friday, March 23, we’re at Fishers’. See you then.

Mea culpa! Somewhere between communicating with our worship designer for Friday and writing the email below, my brain glitched. Our text for Friday will actually be Acts 4:5-20, part of the fallout of Peter and John healing a lame man at the temple. It’s a similar story, dealing with the religious authorities’ attempts to dissuade the apostles from their bold preaching and doing miracles, so the questions below still apply (except for the one about Gamaliel).  Mea maxima culpa!

We’ll also be joined for conversation by Dr. Gemechis Buba, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod’s mission director, after our worship. And of course the food will be excellent!

Hi, everyone. Hope you’re enjoying this pleasant day! This Friday night we’re meeting at Betsy Waldo’s house — 6-ish for dinner followed by our worship/conversation around 7:15. Come for both, or just for the conversation, as you are able. Betsy said she would do up some pork and sauerkraut as a main dish. Whatever you want to bring to go with that is fine. Call or email Betsy with questions. Need directions? Email cal [at] liveservegrow [dot] info. Next week (March 23) we”ll meet at the Fishers’.

Thanks for some great conversation on Acts 2. We tackled some really interesting questions about how we are the church in our time and place. For this time we want to look at Acts 5:12-42. This is the second time that Peter and the apostles have been hauled before the religious court for preaching Christ. (In Chapter 3 Peter and John heal a lame man on their way into the temple, and preach to the people, then in Chapter 4 the religious establishment tells them to stop preaching Jesus, and they say there’s no way they can keep quiet about him. Its a great story!)

Some things to think about as you read:

• What are the disciples doing that helps the Spirit to keep adding to the church?What would that look like in our time and place?
• What about the disciples message provokes such strong reaction from the establishment? (you might want to look at Acts 3:12-20 and Acts 4:15-17 for some clues)
• What is the role of the Spirit in what is happening here?
• What do you think of Gamaliel’s wisdom in v. 33-39? Does that apply to what we see happening in the church today?

I hope to see many of you on Friday!

We’ll meet this Friday night at Grove’s. (Dinner at 6-ish, worship/conversation at 7:30) Andy promises pizza and beverages, you can bring drinks, salad, desserts or anything else you want — we’ll certainly eat it! There will be supervised play/learning for the kids and a short intergenerational activity.

I’ve had a couple of requests for a little more direction for our Acts study, which is a great idea. So here goes: This week we’re going to look at the part of Acts 2 we glossed over, the earliest description of the church community, and try to bring it into our lives. (Read it here; scroll down to verses 37-47).

As you read and reflect on this passage, think about this:
* What did it mean to “be church” in the days of the apostles? What does it mean for us to be church here and now?
* The early church we’re told focused on the apostle’s witness to Jesus, living as a community, “the common meal” (which is both a meal and the sacrament), and prayers. How does this match what we need as church now?
* The text says the church was “committed” to these “churchy” things and to caring for each other. What do we want to commit to each other as part of our church adventure?

In short, how do we put flesh on living as disciples, serving like Jesus and growing in the Spirit?

I’m really looking forward to the insights, energy and passion you all bring to these conversations. Our time together is a real blessing to me! See you Friday!

Could it be that the intellectual progenitor of small, intentional Christian communties might be — Martin Luther?

In 1526, in the famous treatise in which he outlined one of his most important contributions to the Church (the liturgy in German, the language of the people, instead of just Latin, the language of the priests), Brother Martin outlined a third kind of “service” the Church needed — essentially a “house church!” Take a look at this snippet:

Those, however, who are desirous of being Christians in earnest, and are ready to profess the Gospel with hand and mouth, should register their names and assemble by themselves in some house to pray, to read, to baptize and to receive the sacrament and practise other Christian works.

We can say that what we’re doing isn’t “new,” and it’s “Lutheran.” Read more of Luther’s vision below.

(more…)

One of the real blessings for me over the last couple of years has been the opportunity to explore the “emerging church” phenomenon. I’ve visited a number of communities that are experimenting with what it means to be the Church in a culture that’s no longer church-centered. I’ve gotten to know pastors, professors, seminarians and lay people who are trying some brave, inspired experiments — in house churches, churches within churches, new mission plants. Being a geek about this sort of stuff, I’ve read a lot, too

The bottom line is: We’re not the only faith community asking the questions we’re asking, questions like: What is church? What does faith formation look like today? Leadership? How do we structure ourselves for mission (instead of maintenance) while not weighing ourselves down too much? We have lots of companions on this journey.

Our questions require ancient-future answers. Looking back at the biblical witness, the story of how the early Church wrestled with these questions in their time and place, is important. So is looking around to see how faithful Christians here and now are finding answers (and more questions!).

So here are some articles I’ve found recently that might help us advance our discussion. If some of the topics are near to your heart, take a few minutes to read some of these pieces and let’s talk!

• Ten things you should not expect from a missional church plant
• How one community talks about the tension between being attenders and committed participants.
• A manifesto for the spiritual formation of children.
• House Church basics: What about children?
• Ideas for becoming a missional church.

Happy feasting!

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