Church, community and Bernard
Tonight could be interesting. I have been asked to lead our small group (which is called Bernard!!) and we are following through the book The Purpose Drive Life by RIck Warren. The topic I am leading on is “You Were Formed for God’s Family” and it is basically about the church. Kind of an interesting topic for me to attempt to address.
Now, let me be clear. I really dislike this book. I hate how shallow it is, how trite and twee and how it is a bit like ‘your-life-will-be-fine-if-you-follow-all-these-steps-to-happiness’. However I realised that it did have a few good points to make, and as I am leading the discussion tonight I can steer it a little in the direction I wish it to go.
So, I read through the chapters of the book, then I read a little of Henri Nouwen’s book Compassion and some of Alan Jamieson’s book A Churchless Faith. Finally I decided to do a word search on my blog for “church” and “community”. I knew I had blogged a lot on these subjects but I hadn’t realised quite how much.
Reading back through some of my posts I started to realise just how fundamental both church and community are to my life, and they are not necessarily part of the same thing. My craving for authentic community seems to overpower the need for church, and yet church can be part of this authenticity. I guess that my journey form a charismatic evangelical church through to not going anywhere, and finally finding my way back into formal church has been exceptionally important. My desire to be in fellowship with God’s family is vast, and yet the understanding that this needs to be meaningful and honest now takes precedence over turning up for the sake of it.
These days I feel as though I have been able to separate myself emotionally from parts of my previous journey. I am able to talk more objectively about what happened and recognise my own failings in the story. Now, I hope to be able to be more honest, authentic and generous with my feelings, with other people as well as with myself. I hope that tonight we have a productive session. One in which I can share parts of my story without it overwhelming the whole evening. I hope I am able to bring a different slant to the ideas of church and community and what that could mean for all of us.
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xxx – hope it goes well. I think that often what these kind of small groups need is a good dose of honesty, particularly with regard to some of the drivel that goes around in “Christian” circles and teaching and you are a great person to do this as you are so open and honest about things.
Will say a prayer or two for tonight.
Why is your group called Bernard? Is it for the same reason my dining room display cupboard is called Bertrand?
When I asked why it was called Bernard the response was ‘because it’s a good name’. A typical response from a random group!
I hope you were using the Purpose Driven Notebook to plan your study. Any notes only to be made with a Purpose Driven Pencil. The use of a Purpose Driven Higlighter Pen may also be allowed in exceptional circumstances.
(I hate that book.)
Me too birdie. I succeeded tonight in only referring to it about twice and taking my information and ideas from everywhere else. I think it went well… in a Purpose Driven way of course.
I read the book last year and couldn’t quite get it, so I’m glad to read something critical about it (oooo, am I allowed to be critical about a Christian book????)
I must say that I find your cynicism very upsetting. I’m sitting here using my Purpose Driven Laptop, on my Purpose Driven sofa, waiting for my Purpose Driven wife to serve my Purpose Driven meal, and looking forward to watching our Purpose Driven TV.
In no way is my Purpose Driven life influenced by this Purpose Driven book.
Yes, you guessed it, I hated it too.
The Purpose Driven Shite is truly awful. I have yet to hear from someone who liked it. I think it might be having a Purpose Driven Binning at this rate.