At Singing Oaks right now we are studying the book of Acts and it has got me thinking a lot about “Church”. In this day and age being a member of a local church family is not the norm. In fact being a “committed to this church family no matter what” member is so far from your norm that it makes talking to others about faith, God, and His will for His church next to impossible. So many of my friends over the years have left my church family to go and connect with a new one. Many of them still haven’t landed and are being tossed to and fro so much that they will likely give up on being a part of a faith community all together. And most leave for so many consumeristic reasons that it is almost disheartening to strive for the Kingdom and Unity that Jesus prayed so diligently to become realized. Has church become a product? Yes! and No!
To be honest though, I have been trying to think about how I could describe this church if someone asked me without talking in consumer language. Almost everything in our culture we talk about in terms of consumerism, to the point that in most job training today we are taught to think of people as consumers or potential consumers. This language and the lifestyle that follows is bleeding over into “church” instead of the other way around. This makes talking about church very difficult. It’s no wonder that people here in the “West” think of a church in consumeristic terms, in terms of the building we meet in, the bible classes we have, the preaching or worship services, or even the cool modern unique ministry that we only have at our church.
So what if I tried to describe my church in the spirit of the Book of Acts and not in terms of the product we produce or the things our community offers. So here’s my work in progress shot at it: My church is a community of believers. We are trying hard to figure out how to be inclusive of everyone when we meet and sometimes we get it wrong and leave people out, but we are a work in progress. We have lost a few members over the years sadly due to mostly consumeristic problems. Though it may sound odd, we would much rather lose them through death due to religious persecution for their faith. At least then we could rejoice in their sacrifice and in their amazing faith. Sounds kind of morbid, but we really believe that God beat out death and that to live is to be more and more like Christ, and for us to die is gain.
Oh and we are really trying to figure out how to live communally, not just inclusively on Sunday morning worship services. We have rich and poor and many different ages and races and are having a tough time learning how to see “our stuff” as God’s stuff and living in such a way that no one goes in need. Most of us don’t fully understand what it means to have faith in God through Jesus so we spend time together each week praying, singing, eating together and discussing where we see God moving. We try to encourage each other to attempt to reach out to new people to share Christ and the Kingdom of God. We argue from time to time about really insignificant things, and we don’t all agree on everything, but we work hard to try and love each other so that we will be known for our Love because that is what God wants from us.
How would you describe Singing Oaks?
Where do you think God is leading us?
