A little slap to the face of my own self-absorption:

The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2006 that people drive 79 percent more miles than they did in 1982 while roadways have only increased 3 percent, creating a frustrated commuter society living in permanent gridlock.1 People get home late in the evening, open their garage, and go right inside. Getting to know your neighbors has almost become a hassle.

Despite my own frustration in this area, I believe my wife is correct (of course). We should know our neighbors. We may have to schedule time with them, take the initiative, or simply make an effort to say hello. Christ calls us to be good neighbors. And this call extends beyond our own subdivisions, condos, and apartments. It is a call to the world. Our neighbors will never see
Christ exemplified in our lives unless we show them.

Read Essential Church.  It’s that good.  I’m only on page 50.

Our final day was a big barbeque at Unwin Park.  We’d been running programs there all week long, so there was more than a few people aware of what we were doing.  Additionally, the park has a lot going on in it - soccer, baseball, a public outdoor pool even.  We probably had at least a hundred people if not more coming in and out, eating free food, playing games, tug-of-wars, and making crafts in our craft tent.  Many Indo Canadians were even participating, which was great to see.  I talked to a couple of families of Syrians - the one guy who lives in the neighbourhood invited his brother from Abbotsford to come out.  It looked like a great time was had by all, except the little girl who cut open her finger on the tug-of-war rope.  Poor thing.

The whole week was a tremendous effort.  Everyone contributed in many ways.  I come away from this week thinking that this shouldn’t be a summer only thing.  We need to be doing this more often.  At the same time though, I realize that there was a massive drain of energy as well.  I mean, I was gone from home every evening this week.  It meant tons of things in my family’s life were put on hold to do this.  As I mentioned before, I was physically, emotionally and spiritually drained.  How do you balance this thing called the Christian life?  How do you love on people and demonstrate in real ways God’s love without burning up your candle and leaving behind ashes?  That’s some thing I will be wrestling with for a while.

Sunday will be exciting too, to see if there are fruits of our labour that walk through the doors at 10am.  If there aren’t, I won’t be disappointed though.  I know that the Spirit works at his own pace, and there will be people who were genuinely touched by us this week, but need time to reorganize their own thoughts about Christianity and what that means to them.  If you’ve lived your life believing that Christians are hypocritical jerks who judge and hate (as we are coloured too often in popular culture), but then encounter genuine love and compassion, and receive gifts with no strings, it would take time to deal with and sort out where the lies end and truth begins.  Every touch like this that happens brings the harvest closer to us.  It’s definitely fun to watch.

I was looking around for church plant blogs from BC and Alberta, to see who’s doing what.  I encountered a blogger who also pastors The Open House in East Vanouver.  Reading over his and his church’s websites gave me a few clues as to his approach to church planting.  I had a few thoughts as I surfed it.

The Open House is advertised as “A missional community walking in a Jesus direction”.  From everything I have read about missional churches and the theology behind them, I am totally in agreement with much of their understanding of the purpose of a church body.  The flavour of missional churches that leans in an emergent direction becomes dischordant in my mind though, because it seems to lean too heavily on a concept of postmodernism that doesn’t really exist much.

I read the other day an author that claims that postmodernism doesn’t really exist.  That the classic anarchic view of young people or whoever, the rejection of absolutes does not exist.  That if you drill down any postmodern, you will find someone who is modern, and recognizes the necessity of modernity.  I think that could be true.  The stereotypical community of emergents as a fellowship body, meeting casually in bars or coffeeshops, talking about God and ancient forms of devotion doesn’t go anywhere.  It relies on the personality of the leader to hold it together because there is no call for loyalty or commitment from its constituent members.  Each member is ultimately self-directed in their own personal quest for deity, and only incidentally fellowships.

What this results in is a community that is temporary and transient.  It comes and goes in wisps.  It relies on flighty noncommital people to dedicate themselves to themselves and in so doing, a community.  Except, I have to think that the Bible teaches the opposite.  It teaches commitment to the body of Christ first, and your person second.  “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your stength, and love your neighbour as yourself.“  Where does the self come?  Last.

So when I see an emerging church with suspended services, I am not surprised.  I wish human nature wasn’t what it is, but that and a dollar will buy you a can of Coke.  I am convinced that one of the factors of a successful church is eliciting real concrete commitment - to doctrine, to fellowship, to service, to God, and to one another.  What comes of that commitment is growth in yourself.  Personal growth is the result of commitment - it can’t be sought for its own sake, and it should never come before anything else.

Now, to figure out how to communicate that to people who disagree.

Heh.  Still working on that.