Update Tuesday

Last week I began to share some of the things that have been impressed upon my heart and mind after spending time with words of Jesus in John 13:34-35. Last week I shared about what we have been learning about discipleship and how we intend to incorporate those ideas into our new work in Hamilton. The next important thing that we have seen in the above mentioned passage is community. The words "one another" have really begun to stand out as extremely important.
The new command that Jesus gives in this passage is to "love one another," and thus the most obvious place to start is to say that in order to live out this command there really must be a "one another," other people with whom to be in relationship. When we consider the context of the passage in which we find this verse we notice that Jesus is in the intimate setting of the last supper with just his disciples. Although we have many other examples of where we are called to love everyone in our midst, our neighbours, our enemies etc. in this example I believe that Jesus is saying something about community and fellowship with other believers. I have heard many people say over the years, that they can be a good Christian without church. I suppose that really depends on how they are defining "church," but if what they mean is that they can do it without other believers then I would suggest that they are not following this command from Jesus, and if they are not following this command, are they being disciples? And is there really being a Christian apart from being a disciple? Jesus seemed to start with his disciples by calling them to himself and then putting them into relationship, the group of twelve, with whom to work, serve, learn, make mistakes, encourage and find accountability. They were never perfect, and nor will we be perfect. They got mad at each other and offended each other (Mark 10:41), and so will we, but that did not seem to change things for Jesus - he still saw it as important and still continued to use community as a key in his approach. I think that the early chapters of Acts also give us some important glimpses into how the early church saw fit to continue to live out this command.
There is more to community, however, than just being a command. As it turns out with so many of the commands, there is much wisdom in them and much benefit for those who follow. I have had many experiences that have demonstrated to me just how powerful this idea of community is.
Our first experiences probably comes from our time spent at the Oakville Sanctuary where we worshiped and served before coming to Milton. We got involved in the small group ministry fairly early on, and as we look back on our time there, the best and most powerful memories come from the small group we were a part of. It is where we forged deep relationships, where we were able to not only explore questions of faith but had the opportunity to walk with each other as that faith hit the realities of life. Together we walked through birth and death, good times and tough times, family struggles and celebrations and even a few lost jobs and unemployment. We saw all that life had to offer and were able to walk with each other through each situation.
For Kim and I, we remember making the decision to go through the process to adopt children. It was our home church that prayed with us through every step. It was that same group who came and rallied around us and painted our house (interior and exterior!) and cleaned it and did all the things, including selling our house, as we moved to a bigger place preparing for whomever God might choose for us to adopt. I will never forget the night when our biological son Liam, age 3 at the time, got to announce to the home church that he had a new brother and sister and bring out a picture of Daniel and Caroline. We were able to laugh and cry and celebrate together that night, as God saw fit that we would receive the phone call telling us that we had been chosen to parent Daniel and Caroline just as we were preparing to host our weekly gathering. And again, it was our home church that threw us a giant "not babies" baby shower, inviting our family and church, as we prepared to welcome our new children into our life.
With these experiences behind us, we sought to bring something similar to Milton. We have had the privilege of walking with those in the worship team in a small group experience each week. One of the things that God had been impressing upon my heart was that if we were to be a worship band, then we needed to be growing as worshipers and thus early on we added a bible study time to our weekly band practices. It has grown to be the most significant part of our time in Milton. As we walk and grow together, similar to our experience in Oakville, we have been faced with life and death, unemployment, celebrations and struggles. Again, it has been this small group were we have experienced growth and encouragement, accountability and support. One significant factor in this has been our sharing a meal each week. No one can take credit for the idea, certainly not me. It came out of necessity and practicality. If you live in the GTA and commute to work then you know that the traffic is about as bad as you will find in all of North America. It was a real challenge for our group to get home from work, have dinner and then make it to our place early enough to have both a bible study and practice. Breaking it up over two nights would mean a commitment of two weeknights, Sunday morning (which includes packing your instrument at home, bringing it to church and setting up, playing for the service, tearing down, heading home and again unloading and setting up your equipment) and again at special occasions. So in order to meet the challenge, we offered to host a meal so that people could come straight here. Well, the meal has been far more significant then we could have imagined. It has forged much closer relationships, it had deepened our bible study and discipleship as people trust more deeply and share more honestly. It has even affected our music. Knowing and trusting each other more deeply somehow means that we play together better as well. Once again we continue to learn about what relationship and community can mean for those following Jesus.
I need to be honest, sometimes people bug me and get on my nerves, and often times I know I bug others and get on their nerves. Sometime we really blow it with each other and, yes, sometimes people in the church are downright cruel. I don't think that this, however, nullifies the need for community. We don't give up on it when we make mistakes. It was to important to Jesus and it has proven too important in my own life to give up on.

So what does this mean for our future work in Hamilton? It means that what we hope to do will be highly relational. One of our core principles will be developing community. As we seek to live out the discipleship that I shared about last week, it will be done in the context of community. We will begin by having people into our home, sharing our lives and sharing meals together. We have been praying that God would lead us to people of peace. We hope to meet them as we meet people in our neighbourhood, have them over and build relationships. We will then prayerfully begin the discipleship and grow a home church in our home. We will share meals together, share the word together, share in prayer together and share our lives together as we seek to live out what we learn about God and all that He has for us. I cannot say with certainty where God will take it and lead it, and I certainly won't pigeon whole Him, but if you were to ask me now, I would suggest that what we will be starting is a network of interdependent house churches that will continue to spread across Hamilton.
Again, I hope that you can see why we have asked for prayer for people of peace. We hope also that you can see how strategic the right home in our community will be and that you will continue to hold that in prayer.
So, Discipleship and Community - two of the core fundamentals our our new work. Next week we will look at one further observation and the last core fundamental with which we will move forward.