Take For Example …

I love reading what Kathleen has to say over at Church in a Circle.

Learning to enjoy the diversity in the Body of Christ continues to be something I get stimulated by.  As I’ve mentioned in highly recommending her blog, Kathleen produces articles that are not just for tickling the intellectual taste-buds, but actually lead to reviewing how we do church and making changes.

As part of a series on Tomorrow’s Church posted late last year, Kathleen looked at Learning Through Shared Experiences.  I would strongly suggest you go have a read of it and then compare what it talks about to your regular experience of church life.

It reminded me of some Bible class experiences I had a long time ago.  The nature of the studies required answering questions from a booklet covering 13 weeks of lessons on a given topic.

Some of the questions asked in the week’s lesson would nudge towards the students giving answers based on personal experiences.  What would tend to happen at that point, is that people would give generic answers.  Nothing specific, mostly seeking to insert some scriptures to reinforce familiar concepts.  Little, if anything in the way of real life experiences.

Indeed, through parts of my Christian journey, it appeared as though people were good at giving cliche answers and routine scripture references to situations.  They would be good at that and moralising.  Yet in the case of what they have gone through, what they have done, what life has brought their way, they appeared very short on material.

Now if you want me to give you textbook answers to questions, that won’t be a problem.  As someone who enjoys reading, I can whip out referenced answers to issues and we would be satisfied (unless someone did more reading).

As I continue to appreciate, however, is that we have the scripture today because people did things.  They didn’t just talk about what other people did – they did things themselves.  They had experiences of encounters with God.  The much vaunted Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 is about people who did things.  I wonder why they call the first book after the gospels in the New Testament, Acts?  What would that appear to suggest about what life in the Spirit is about?

It is not sacrilegious to suggest that God has given the Word to inspire us to write further chapters of God’s work in the world in our own lives.  There, we have something grounded to refer to others when making disciples, mutually edifying and doing life together.  Not at all to suggest that my life then should be taken as Holy Scripture and all must bow to my experience.  It is about not getting so hung up on literary pieces that we have nothing to show for what the reality of Jesus Christ means to us.

As I wrote the contribution to Alan Knox’s Chain blog earlier this week, it occurred to me that actually, even in the limited time on earth that I’ve had, even I have things to offer from the pages of my life that highlight the grace and power of Jesus Christ.  Not only that, but some things that I may have taken for granted or neglected, are exactly the sort of things that can be used to testify, admonish and encourage people in their walk with Christ.

The Bible remains a fundamental part of my growing experience in Christ.  It does so as a platform to be getting on with my own exploits in Christ.  It says this is who God is, this is what Jesus does, this is how the Spirit lead others to do things for God’s glory.  Now is the chance to get in on the Acts (geddit?) and live a life filled with episodes that can be used to benefit others in their walk.

Kathleen’s article also suggests, that this is something that isn’t just an individual pursuit, but when it becomes communal activity, shared experiences – visiting the elderly together, groups serving in soup kitchens, teams creatively presenting the gospel to children and young people, etc. – then there’s a greater sense of shared ownership of the things God is teaching us.  We thus grow and mature together – not at the same pace, in the same way, but we can refer to things we did together as learning opportunities.

This way, there’ll be less of a likelihood to be purely theoretical without any life application when we gather together.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden