Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Church

A New Form of Community?

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In the 1960s, Edward T. Hall developed a theory based on the relationship between space, culture, community, and belonging. His research is becoming increasingly important for us as we discern how to better engage in community.

After all, the biblical mandate for us is to be in community, but what does that actually look like? The wineskins can change, can’t they?

  • Public Space (50+ people present) – Our weekend gathering or a sporting event is what the public space looks like. You belong, you are part of a community, you somewhat get to know those around you, but there is not much of an opportunity to really get to know others.
  • Social Space (20-50 people present) – This is a party-like environment where we are safe to decide who we would like to grow a deeper relationship with. It’s big enough that a newcomer won’t feel like they’re the centre of attention, yet it’s small enough that no one will fall through the cracks. It’s big enough that everyone will find someone to connect with, but it’s small enough that meaningful conversation can take place, without it being uncomfortable. You belong, you are part of a community, and it’s a safe place to take that next step.
  • Personal Space (8-12 people present) – This is the typical small group environment, where you intentionally are connecting with others to go deeper, share life together, pray with one another, and allow yourself to be known. Private information is shared, but this isn’t the place where you are completely vulnerable and baring your whole soul.
  • Intimate Space ( 1-3 people present) – This is an environment that you let only a few people into. It could be a spouse, a best friend, or an accountability group. This is an environment where nothing is held back and there is a lot of intentionality in sharpening one another, being accountable to one another, and being intentional in community.

In churches, we have been very intentional with the public and personal space, and sometimes with the intimate space, but not really with the social space.

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Re-Imagining Theological Education

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I just came across some excellent videos (see below) illustrating the thoughts on theological education and seminary that I’ve been wrestling with for the past couple of years. You can read about my thoughts here.

You can also read a great article by Leonard Sweet about how seminaries have to reinvent themselves here.

I am encouraged to not only see 3DM working through this concept, but also Fuller Seminary.

 

Here are pertinent sites discussing the matter:

  • http://thefutureoftheologicaleducation.com/
  • http://future.fuller.edu

Eating as a Holy Act

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Did you know that over the past three decades, there has been a 45 percent decrease in entertaining friends and a 33 percent decrease in families eating together? And more than half of those families watch television as they eat together – I know it…that’s what my family did growing up (research from Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone).

What did you eat today? Whom did you eat it with? When’s the last time you had a meaningful time of relationship and community with another person? Was it around food? Most of us not only organize our day around our meals, but is is the social glue that connects families and friends together. Isn’t that why the big holidays, like Christmas and Thanksgiving are celebrated with family, friends, and a big meal?

However, we oftentimes eat without knowing and understanding the significance of it, other than satisfying that hunger or satiating that palette.

So what would it look like if we began seeing food and our meal times through the eyes of Jesus? How did he view the table?

Well, in the New Testament, here are three of the ways that the sentence “The Son of Man came…” is completed:

  1. …not to serve, but to serve (Mark 10:45);
  2. …to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10);
  3. …eating and drinking (Luke 7:34).

Faith and Kids – the Parent’s role

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Deut. 6:1   These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,  2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.  3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.

Deut. 6:4    Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

We can’t pass something onto our kids that we don’t have ourselves. After all, the above passage says that we need to love the lord our God with all OUR heart, OUR soul, and with all OUR strength…this is before he even mentions impressing it on your child. So what’s first? What should our priority be?

If we want to be great parents and see our children grow up to know, love, and serve Jesus, then we need to be doing that first. 

Attending a weekend service, participating in a group, and meeting with others in your group on a casual basis are all designed to be reinforcements for the way we raise our children and draw closer to God…they aren’t intended to be replacements for us raising our kids up in the faith and us taking personal responsibility for our spiritual lives.

Grab a pencil.

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Book Review: The Next Christendom – Philip Jenkins

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The following is an analytical book review of Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom.

Philip Jenkins, the author of 24 books, and 120 book chapters and refereed articles, has been on the faculty of Pennsylvania State University since 1980, and in 2007, he was appointed as the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of History and Religious Studies. He completed his undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral work all at the University of Cambridge, but it is not his work in global Christianity that got him on the faculty of Penn State. He began as an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in 1980. In fact, his early work consists of history, criminology, and pedophilia. It was not until his publication of The Next Christendom that his reputation as an expert on global Christianity came to the forefront. Since then, he has spoken widely around this topic of global Christianity (http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/vita.htm).

The thesis of this book is that the center of Christianity has shifted southward to Africa, Asia, and Latin America (Location 36). As a result, in spite of the seeming decline of Christianity in the western world, Christianity is actually growing and flourishing in most areas around the world (Location 992).

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