We are so fully into this way of being disciples in intimate community that I, at least, sometimes forget the ways what we do is different from what we once took for granted.
Last night our host family was not able to meet at the usual time. So, without much difficulty, we adjusted the gathering time by about a half hour. This all happened within about two hours of the time we were supposed to gather.
No problem.
Can you imagine the difficulty you would have with this sort of thing in your setting?
The meeting itself was normal and not impacted by the later starting time, though we did break up later than usual on a very cold night.
As we do sometimes, part of our time we used Francis Chan's CRAZY LOVE as our inspiration. We are in chapter six. We took Chan to a place he probably didn't intend. We spent a lot of time delving into the ways each of us expresses love and feels loved, i.e., our love languages--and how those things work themselves our in our lives of obedience. Good stuff.
Interestingly, Chan includes the same David Livingston quote that Don Dennison used in this issue of The CHURCH Advocate-the one on sacrifice.
Bottom line: we achieved the mission of our gatherings: To provoke each other to love and good works.
One thing that distinguishes us now from what we used to be--and from what I have experienced other CGGC congregations to be--is that, while we place far less emphasis on attendance of gatherings as a form of righteousness that pleases the Lord, we have a very clear understanding of the reason for gathering.
ReplyDeleteWe know if a gathering fulfilled its purpose and we know, from the Word, why that is so.
So, when I say that our gathering fulfilled its mission, I am speaking in objective terms, at least for me. I was provoked to love and good works. And, my clear sense is that the others were too.