Church, community, sects and personal empires

When we think of "church" we may think of a specific gathering of people, building, or denomination. However,  in the Bible, there is only one church, and it is global, diverse, and centred around Jesus Christ.

Eugene Peterson reflects on the centrality of community in the third section of Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology 

“When I became a pastor I didn’t think much about the complexities of community… I didn’t come to the conviction easily, but finally there was no getting around it: there can be no maturity in the spiritual life, no obedience in following Jesus, no wholeness in the Christian life apart from an immersion and embrace of community. I am not myself by myself. Community, not the highly vaunted individualism of our culture, is the setting in which Christ is at play.” 

 p.226

“The Bible furnishes us with a rich vocabulary that gives texture to the bare term “community”: people, people of God, congregation, great congregation, church, chosen people, royal priesthood, temple, family, body, commonwealth.”

The church is notorious for divisions. Just look at the list on Wikipedia of scores of different Baptist denominations, particularly in the USA! Today most of the largest and fastest-growing churches are independent churches, often centred around a single personality. We may tend to use the word "sect" to refer to an obscure and weird religious cult. Peterson uses the word sect in the sense of denomination, division, or niche Christian group.

“A sect is a front for narcissism. We gather with other people in the name of Jesus, but we predefine them according to our own tastes and predispositions. This is just a cover for our individualism: we reduce the community to conditions congenial to our imperial self.”

“The sectarian impulse is strong in all branches of the church because it provides such a convenient appearance of community without the difficulties of loving people we don’t approve of, or letting Jesus pray us into relationship with the very men and women we’ve invested a good bit of time avoiding.” 

“A sect is accomplished by community reduction, getting rid of what does not please us, getting rid of what offends us, whether ideas or people. We construct religious clubs instead of entering resurrection communities.” 

p. 244

Building an intentional community of Christian writers

For the past seven years or so, I have been privileged and blessed to be part of the "holy" scribblers: an eclectic group of writers interested in the interface of Christian theology, spirituality, and life. We are an example of an intentional Christian community.

Here I reflect on how I have benefitted from the group, why it works so well, some unique dimensions to the group, and what lessons might be learned for others wishing to establish such Christian communities. This post is motivated by the need to reflect on this for a seminar that some of us will give at the end of this month at the Asian Theological Seminary in Manila. Although the group is rather unique, some of my observations below highlight several dimensions that may be relevant to other intentional Christian communities.

The group has been helpful to me for many reasons. I enjoy the group and the fellowship we have. For my writing activities, the group provides some structure, accountability, feedback, advice, networking, and encouragement. 

Almost all the group members have published several books. Several say they would never have started, persevered with, and finished these books without the support and advice of the group. During the pandemic, we wrote a book together.

At several of our writer's retreats, I read draft chapters of my first book, Condensed Matter Physics: A Very Short Introduction. Positive feedback encouraged me to persevere. Networking is also important. Through the group, I have been connected to an excellent editor, who has been incredibly helpful in shaping a book on science and theology I am writing.

Who is in the group? We are mostly "retired", having worked  at some time in a range of fields: social work, marketing, medicine, education, law, physics, psychology, theology, ... Most of us have Ph.D.'s and have spent significant time teaching in universities and seminaries, including in Asia. There is an approximate gender balance. We are involved in a range of churches and all hold to the beliefs and practises of historical Christianity, such as the Nicene Creed. On the one hand, all this highlights the uniqueness of this eclectic group. On the other hand, it shows the dimension of common backgrounds and perspectives. But, there is unity in diversity.

What do we do together? Here regular rhythms are important. Every Wednesday we spend most of the day in the library of a local theological college, Trinity College Queensland. We have long chats over morning coffee and lunch. The rest of the time we are in the library working on our own writing projects.

One or two times a year we go away together for a week, sometimes to a local monastery. We share meals and use the Celtic Daily Prayer book for Morning, Midday, and Evening prayer. During the day we work on our own writing projects. After dinner each evening, we take turns reading out loud to the group some of what we have been writing.  This is followed by animated discussion and feedback. Given the high level of trust coming from long-term relationships, the feedback is honest and sometimes critical.

There is synergy and overlap with the activities of the groups that members are involved in such as Theology on Tap, A monthly theology reading group, Northumbria Community, and Franciscans,...

Due to the long-term relationships in the group, there is a strong commitment to meeting and persevering. Over the years, I have seen many groups wind down rather fast, because individuals are motivated by "what I can get out of it". If they don't immediately get tangible benefits, they decide to just "do their own thing" or go and look for another group.

The group is informal: there is no constitution, doctrinal statement, bank account, committee, minutes of meetings, leadership positions, or written goals, ... This sounds rather counter-cultural. Sometimes we do have to make decisions, such as where and when to have our next retreat and how to respond to inquiries from prospective new members. Such decisions are made by consensus.

So key elements are long-term relationships, time, trust, honesty, informality, rhythm, synergy, unity in diversity, ...

Course on Church, Community, and Conversations

At our church, my wife Robin and I recently helped to facilitate a course entitled The Gift and Challenge of Church, Community, and Conversations.

Central to the course was having participants in small groups at tables. Several times each session they would have some discussion questions. Every week there was one Bible passage that they read together and discussed. After the formal end of each session most people stayed at their tables continuing their discussion. I don't know how long they stayed because we went home. After all, it was past my bedtime. 💤😁

The course ran for five weeks, for two hours, on a weeknight. Below I put copies of the handouts/worksheets and of the PowerPoint slides. But I stress that they only give a flavour of the course it does not capture the table discussions or what was explained about the content in the slides.

Week 1 - The gift of Church 

Handout,  Slides

Week 2 - The gift of diversity

Handout, Slides

Week 3 - The gift of welcoming

Handout, Slides

Week 4 - The gift of communities

Handout, Slides

Week 5 - The gift of conversations

Handout, Slides

The content and pedagogy of this course were enriched by what I have learnt from the IFES Logos and Cosmos Initiative about the global church, culture, context, working in diverse teams, listening, mental health and above all, relating God's Word and God's world. 

Personally, I was stimulated and challenged by the material we discussed together. Living in a community, unity in diversity, welcoming strangers, and listening to others seem appealing. However, actually doing them is a challenge! Engaging in meaningful conversations with those very different from me is not easy.