Drinking deeply

...from the well of relationship. These days Sundays produce a deep satisfaction within me. Our church meets at a variety of homes and today it was at our place. 4 other people arrived around 11.30am and the last person left at 5pm. Once upon a time, a 5.5 hour church service would have been very hard to endure, but these days I could church with others for hours on end.

For those that are wondering what we do for 5.5hours in church... well it's quite simple. We gather at someone's house. We have coffee and nibbles, chat about our week, maybe sing a couple of songs, maybe read a story to Caelan and Elisha, have a loungeroom conversation about the Scriptures and the contours of our lives. We share stories, affirm one another, pray for one another. Caelan and Elisha get lots of cuddles from their adopted grandparents. We eat some great food together, drink some good wine, have more coffee with sweets. Chat some more; both the deep and significant as well as the humorous and insignificant. Finally everyone goes home. Pretty simple. No rocket science involved and to be honest not a whole lot of planning either. But with all the lack of program, agenda and structure emerges the most satisfying conversations and relationships that I have ever experienced in my 27years of church.

This is not to say that any of my previous relationships have never reached this level - but they were only ever occasional or glimpses. For this can only ever be the case when the focus of church is the one person up the front. In the past deeper relations occurred when we'd have someone over for a meal or at a church camp or when bible study went on a tangent into the deep contours of someone's life. So to share week by week focusing on one another as we meet over God's word is incredible.

What is so deeply satisfying? I have considered this question a lot. I think the answer is that we meet in a context where grace and freedom abound. No rules, no regulations, no meaningless traditions upheld for not offending the few. There is freedom to speak, to say something crazy and not be hollered down. To disagree or to challenge. Freedom to live our lives in our neighbourhood without feeling torn. Torn between attending church meetings or programs and having dinner with the neighbours next door. Freedom to even spend time with our neighbours instead of 'going to church'. Grace because in such a small group it has to be the centre. We can't just avoid the person we have hurt or don't like. There is no sense of having to measure up to a certain standard, certain model or type. Everyone fits, sane or insane, because grace abounds. Grace means it's ok to fail. Grace means that everyone can have a turn at bellringing (or you might know it as leading) instead of the reigns being tightly controlled out of fear that someone might say the wrong thing.

Please don't hear me wrong. This is in no way a perfect church. I suppose I paint this picture because it is so different to any experience I have had before. Although flawed and weak, we want to grow together. There is a sense in which we hold out a vision of what each person in the group could be. We encourage each other to grow into that space. To have the eye of faith for what could be . To dream. To think the impossible. To seek to bless this world with compassion, justice and good. To encourage each other as God's agents in bringing in his new creation.

The gospel has never been so big and so exciting (and a little bit scary). My concern for my community is no longer just about evangelising it and then feeling guilty cause I am not doing that real well. We encourage each other to see God's plan as bigger than just that. To see the world as God's project. We need to live now on behalf of that project. Making it a better place. To fill it with truth, integrity, goodness, compassion, grace, justice and love. Through these things our prayer is that our neighbour's will know the love and salvation of Jesus. That they too would join us on this amazing journey that God has placed before us.