A New Life in Organic Church

It’s been far too long since I posted anything on here but I guess that’s can be expected when I had about 300 pages of reading each week, along with tons of papers, the majority of them being between ten-fifteen pages, over the past semester.  Anyways, I have completely finished school and, as far as I know, I have gotten my Master of Arts in Theological Studies after two and a half years.  Before I had even finished, everyone had been asking me what I was going to do next.

Well, here it is.  I have moved to Gainesville, FL, to be a part of an organic church community.  It’s a community whose whole existence and life is defined solely by the Triune God at work within it.  There is no organized structure like you might expect in a church community but any structure that emerges is as the Spirit is at work among the people of the community.

Before I continue, I’ll preemptively answer some questions that I’m sure are emerging in your minds.  No, it’s not a cult.  And, no, we don’t live in a commune.

What it is, though, is a community that understands it’s nature and purpose as a church grounded solely in Christ.  The life that exists within the community flows as Christ continues to work in the lives of all involved and as they participate together in Christ.  This even included the times when the whole community gathers together.  The entire evening is an outpouring of praise for how members of the community have witnessed Christ at work in themselves and in others throughout the week.  It’s a time for the community to collectively affirm how Christ has been shaping and is continuing to shape the community.

The life of Christ seen throughout the week is demonstrated by the ways that community members intentionally interact with each other throughout the week.  If any community has a chance of arguing for embodying the phrase, “All the believers were together and had everything in common”, it would be this kind of community.  The love that everyone has for each other is continually poured out though small things, like inviting several people over for a meal or offering to babysit for a couple, or bigger things like helping out someone in the community who is in need.

So that’s what my life after grad school consists of now.  I transfered to a Starbucks down here in Gainesville and will continue to work for the Bux for the foreseen future.

I know many of you might be curious about this, so feel free to ask me any questions you like.  For those of you who might somehow be concerned about my being a part of this, let just say I have not taken move down here lightly.  I am only continuing in seeking God above all things, that He might be the only ground on which I have to stand (as I have no ground of my own to stand upon or anything good that I can claim as my own).  Only in God can we find anything that is good.  Our love, faithfulness, and hope are not inherently ours but only find their existence in God.  It is only because of His faithfulness that we can live faithfully to the gospel of Christ we have been called.  It is only because of His self-sacrificing overwhelming love that He has exhibited that we can self-sacrificially love God and others.  It is only in the certain hope that He has given us in and through Christ, that we have a certain hope beyond our own existence.

In light of this, I moved to Gainesville because this is where God has led me to be and I cannot rightly do anything else.  The only thing that one can seek is the purity of heart of will one thing, in the words of Kierkegaard.  That “one thing” is God alone, no matter what or whatever place of life.  So the whole of our existence can, and must only be, seeking God above all things  and continually praying that we might echo Paul in Philippians 3:

“⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through [the faithfulness of] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith[fulness]. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

This is what my life consists of as I am starting life after seminary in Gainesville.  Since I do not have homework or classes to focus on now, I am planning on setting up scheduled days to blog so that those of you who care to know, can follow what I will be experiencing while I participate in this organic church community and as I continue to seek Christ above all things.

~ by hardybeefstew on January 2, 2011.