‘The
kingdom of God is upon you.’
The
Vineyard
|
‘The
kingdom of God is upon you.’ |
little.letter.01.04.03
Looking
Back…Looking Forward
Our
sapling of a faith community called the Vineyard has now been in existence for
almost 17 months (I gauge our age by Jackson’s J). Here are a few thoughts I’ve been having
about where God may be leading us next.
First of all, I believe that our time of ‘wandering’ is about
through. This amorphous, questioning
time has been fruitful but cannot sustain a community of the kingdom. Deconstruction must decrease and
construction must increase.
Things We Have Learned…
Although
not many questions are answered (you thought there were answers?) there are a
few things we are beginning to see as concrete:
o
The
Gospel of Jesus is much more than walking the aisle and getting into
heaven. The “kingdom of God is at hand”
and is invading every part of our lives.
Being a Christian (follower of Jesus, apprentice, disciple, etc.) means
learning an entirely new way of life.
This ‘Way’ is not simply participating in the Christian culture (i.e.
going to church, reading your Bible, listening to WAY FM, maintaining Christian
friendships) but discovering that we are the incarnation of God. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit – God
has set up the Holy of Holies in our hearts – and we are a “light to the
nations,” a “city set on a hill,” and the “salt of the earth.”
o
We
are learning this Way as a family of friends, holding our highest value to be
love. Love and our common indebtedness
to Jesus is what bind us together.
However, what we are attempting stands in conflict to a culture that
values individualism, consumerism (every hear someone say, “I’ll go where my
needs are met?”), managerial models of relationship (“What can our friendship
do for me?”), and is increasingly ahistoric (no sense of being connected to a
larger story). Discipleship and
authentic community in this world stand as an affront to most of the values our
friends and neighbors hold dear.
However, to be disciples of Jesus means we must face this challenge head
on. There is no other way.
Becoming a Worshipping Community…
I
believe that the place to start constructing communities of the Holy Spirit is
worship. As a family, we must learn how
we were uniquely created to worship God. Everyone knows worship is important, even primary, but few are
willing to work out how to worship as concrete, flesh-and-blood group of
people. Most simply take the best of
what’s out there and load it into their church like a pirated piece of
software. Worship is not a
closed-source system like Windows XP.
It is open-source code; free to be handcrafted bearing the mark of
unique creativity and gifts.
Just
a quick note here: I’m using ‘worship’ to describe all the actions combined
that put God at the center of our minds and hearts. This includes concrete stuff like liturgy, location, times,
dates, the people involved - the worshippers themselves. Real people creatively expressing their love
for God.
Authentic worship
is our heritage in the Vineyard. Back
during the early 1980’s in Southern California, the first Vineyards were
discovering a way to worship God that was cutting edge for its time. Relevant songs with simple intimate lyrics,
simple preaching with a laid back style, and people hungry and thirsty for
God’s presence. There have been many changes
in the church and in culture during the last 20 years. We need to discover what “state-of-the-art”
worship looks like in our community in 2003.
Worship
(as well as prayer) can be a subversive act.
But it is only subverting the status quo if it calls into question those
values I mentioned above. It must be historical,
learning from the “long heritage of communities discerning and participating in
God’s creative, redemptive, and transformative activity.”[1] It must be connective, defying
the cultural mores that separate faith from life, priest from the people. It must be experiential,
encouraging – even dependent on – participation from the entire community. Finally, it must be dynamic,
growing and maturing as the community is open to the Spirit’s presence. “The purpose of all ecclesial practices is
to enable the community of faith to see, grasp, and participate ever more
deeply in the creative power, redeeming love, and transforming presence of God
in the ongoing mission of the reconciliation of all humanity and the healing of
all creation.”[2]
So
where do we go from here? I’m proposing
that we spend the next several Wednesdays working out how we should be
worshipping God together. This will
probably culminate in some planned event, possibly another (or a series) of
worship experiences like we held in October.
Also, we should begin to discern what worship will look like for us on a
week-to-week basis and how we can invite others into the community God is building. I will be sending out an email detailing
each meeting in case you are unable to come.
I
suggest that you soon take a day or an afternoon and carve out some quiet space
to think and pray. Look at the
individual gifts God has given you and ask him how he wants you to use them in
this community. Think about what you
love to do and how that passion could become part of a worship mosaic. Begin praying specifically for ideas,
vision, etc. as we will be spending time brainstorming during the next couple
gatherings.
Over the Christmas holiday
I could not keep this thought out of my mind: Jesus came as the incarnation of
God so that we could follow in his footsteps.
Becoming a community that genuinely and passionately worships God is a
huge step towards becoming a Gospel community, a people of the kingdom.
Blessings,
Mike
home: 741-4156