I remember when... (Really is this gonna become a blog of an old cranky man?)

It was probably near to 30 years ago when I was asked to give a presentation to a Bible college class. The class was about church and where its strengths and weaknesses lay.

I remember the class was fresh and eager and excited to engage with me on the topic.

We were church planting at the time and that allowed us to do church a bit differently than many of the churches of that day. So many of the churches then were more like corporations than they were anything else.  There were systems and processes and ways to get the business of churches done. It was in the 1980s and 90s so some of the church growth techniques were starting to gain traction.

In the church we were in the process of planting we discovered almost by accident, the power of community in church life. People were friends, and not just friendly. That meant they would check up on one another and care for each other through the week in whatever needs they might face. The new people were incorporated into the community and given a place at the table, so that they too had a sense of belonging. We were growing, slowly and surely, we were being established.

There really weren't worship wars in that community because the people would take turns leading the music. We didn't have a youth group and so our kids hung out with adults and participated with them as well. It gave them a sense of belonging too.

We didn't have a building that was ours and we rented space we met in, So our money and our investments were in people. In our local people, and our community in which we lived. 

I remember that my presentation to this class was along the lines of church could be this and this and this, and what I was doing was describing our little church in the city. As I talked their eyes got bigger and bigger and they became more animated in their excitement about wanting to belong to a church like this. they asked me did I know where a church like this existed and I said yes I do. It was to be found in the church that we had the opportunity to be a part of. 

I remember their enthusiasm as they left the room talking in excited tones about the future of church.

Now we were anything but a perfect church. Oh no. There were many struggles along the way. And of course when you're building a community one of the struggles that would arise is bumping into one another. When one had a vision for one direction and one had a vision for another direction, there could be tension. What we had was a commitment to each other in listening and to working out those places in our life together.

The emphasis with that class was primarily that the church could be a community, more than a corporate entity. I know most people would agree with that sense, but it was always in the outworking of that value that community could lose out over the need for structure and organization. 

So here we are 30 years later looking back more than we are looking forward. And I would have to strongly say that in the churches that I have been a part of that have been fruitful ministries, there has been a strong sense of community built. 

The young people I have come in contact with these days are still looking for churches that are about community. As have people who have stuck it out in churches where they don't have any friends.

Churches have chosen different directions and different values that will help them to grow for a time, but I am surprised that some of them are still in existence. Maybe that speaks to peoples stubbornness, or perhaps that speaks to God's incredible patience with us.

But I feel like that is a message I want to get out in every conversation with a young pastor that I have. The Holy Spirit, God, is a relational God who is all about community and that we can experience true living and true life in a godly community. And that's what people are after. many people anyway.

If you want to be a pastor, think about it. Pray about this. And then act on it. 

And if you long to belong to a church like this, they don't just happen, they have to be prayerfully built together.

I believe God still has a lot of surprises in store for his church. We'll see, and we'll pray.