The Church's Desire for Community

In the past few days, in the meetings that I have had with fellow IV leaders and in my personal reflections, the idea of the gathering of believers the importance of having healthy community has really been an important topic of thought for me. Recently we have been struggling with identifying the importance of believers gathering together and studying and worshiping together. Seen from the surface, this can really be a tough argument, since many aspects of a Christian lifestyle can be very personal, but when I thought about it more, it becomes very clear that the idea of believers gathering together is an extremely important component of Christian life, mainly because of its emphasis on caring for and about each other, as well as putting us in a larger context.

From the beginning of Christianity, the idea of gathering together and being in healthy community has been a very important part of a believers walk. During Jesus' ministry, he was not only constantly teaching and stretching the minds of his followers, but he was also intentionally spending time with them, listening to them, and directing them in the direction of the Father and Himself. Also, He constantly emphasized the importance of loving and serving each other, showing how important it was to serve and respond to each other's needs. This is most easily seen in the gathering of both small groups of people, as well as in the gathering of larger groups. Some theologians, somewhat misinterpreting the idea that Jesus presented pertaining to the "Kingdom of Heaven," have argued that Jesus spoke strictly of a non-earthly community of believers and that He really did not intend for there to be a "Church" on earth as we see it now at all, but somehow there is a disconnect here. If that were true, the present day Church would not have survived as long as it has. Jesus specifically speaks of an earthly gathering of believers in order to teach, encourage, and care about one another and it is this fundamental idea that is still going strong 2,000 years after His death and resurrection.

Without a local and global community of believers, it would be possible to still lead a Christian lifestyle, but it probably would not be the same as the lifestyle that Jesus taught. Without the guidance and encouragement of other believers, the gospel of grace would probably be easily distorted and manipulated. However, thanks to the Scriptures, the divine guidance of God, and the belief of Christians through the centuries, the idea of believers gathering together has survived and people have fought desperately to preserve it. The early Christians would rather gather together in the Catacombs and risk persecution rather than believe secretly. The Puritans would rather sail thousands of miles away and risk death for the right to gather together than to be persecuted for it. Chinese Christians would rather meet together in secret and risk torture and death rather than to stifle their religious fire and obey an oppressive government. That desire for community is fundamental to a Christian lifestyle and the recognition of this important element of gathering together to worship and learn is basic to our understanding of grace, our developing sense of service and love for one another, as well as our encouragement to reach out to the rest of the world.

Joan of Arc

In my last History of Medieval England class this morning we spent a good portion of time discussing Joan of Arc, her role in the Hundred Years War, as well as the impact that she made on the Catholic Church. I thought the discussion was very interesting, especially since it dealt with many of the ideas that I have been thinking about and what I have been talking about in my last post.

Joan came from very humble beginnings and was the daughter of a peasant family in France born in 1412. Her life drastically changed when she began hearing voices, voices that she stated were those of the saints directing her to do things. At first the voices directed her to do everything that a good Catholic would do, such as praying regularly and obeying her parents, but later the instructions became much more political and drastic, such as directing the French heir to the throne to take over the country and to expel the English invaders that had captured a good portion of France. Joan acted promptly, helping the the Dauphine (French heir to the throne) to raise an army and, unheard of during that time, leading the French army into a series of victories and eventually expelling the English from France.

However, in 1421 Joan was captured by Burgundian troops and sent to England. There she was put on trial in England, not for leading troops or helping the French, but for claiming that the voices she heard were truly divinely revealed. These charges were so serious that when Joan was convicted she was labeled a heretic and burned at the stake, even though she never directly questioned or challenged the authority of the Church.

What interested me the most about the story of Joan of Arc is the response to her revelations throughout time. Interpreted back then, Joan's revelations were seen as a direct attack on the sovereignty of the clergy, them being the only ones capable of interpreting and distributing biblical truth. This seems odd today, mainly because of our protestant background as well as the fact that none of Joan's revelations appeared to be counter-scriptural. But perhaps the most interesting interpretation is that of the modern day. In most contemporary circles, Joan is labeled as a schizophrenic, an individual haunted by strange voices in her mind which ultimately gave her a distorted sense of reality. But this view also seems out of balance, considering the fact that Joan was not unstable, most of her revelations were true, and she had remarkable leadership skills, skills that normally would almost certainly not be present in an 18 year old girl. Once again, we also need to weight the fact that none of Joan's revelations were counter to scripture and did have truth to them from a more balanced point of view.

Whether or not the revelations of Joan of Arc were truly divinely revealed or not is still unclear and is still being debated, but it does bring up an interesting point regarding how cultures respond to direct revelation. When I heard that story, I suppose I just wondered how we would respond to a Joan of Arc in our time and place and, if her revelations were indeed supported by scripture and biblical truth, if we respond to it in the same way that others have in the past.

Truth Blended

Truth is quite possibly one of the easiest and one of the most difficult concepts to understand. In one respect, it can be very easy to pick out and to understand, and on the other hand, it can be very deep, even deeper than we can possibly imagine. One can say that truth is one of the biggest things that Christians seek: truth about God, the Universe, and even just their relationship with their creator. However, especially pertaining to the Christian's search for truth, it is very important to have a well rounded, or "blended" search and concept of truth.

One interesting and valuable concept that comes from Chinese philosophy is the idea of balance. The Chinese believe that the whole universe is built upon a balance of forces, harmonizing and balancing. Although some aspects of this concept can be dangerous for Christians, I really believe that there are some good aspects of it as a well and can be applied to our relentless search for truth. Truth can not just be about searching for facts or just "having a gut feeling," but should be a balance between the two, harmonizing to give us a well rounded, good scale in which to weight truth and falsehood.

One aspect of searching for truth has really been affecting me in the past few weeks as I look at scripture and how it applies to the beliefs that I hold as truth. Staying true to my postmodern worldview, I tend to have beliefs based on my feelings and on the personal emotions I have, with some small aspects of weighing them based on facts. However, I found my faith being strengthened immensely when I saw over and over again the things that I believed to be true to be written blatantly in scripture. The old philosophes of the 18th century did teach us some solid things, like basing truth on observation and logic and physical facts, and often times truth can be revealed in leaps and bounds based on the observations and interpretations that we can make on the concrete facts that we have around us.

However, the element of feeling and emotions can not be pushed out of the picture by observation of facts when seeking truth. The wind whispering through a cold forest, a refreshing drink in a mountain stream, or the feeling of a divine presence can not be derived into a mathematical equation or a scientific theorem. But they are also real and awesome, and must also be taken into account to weighing the truth. But, as always, these feelings also have to be weighed against revealed truth in scripture and other sources. It is this perfect blend of truth that I think really brings us to a deeper understanding of truth and a deeper relationship with God. In order to have a truly deep understanding of truth, a Christian must be a mathematician, a historian, a scientist, and a poet, four aspects that all strive for truth, but all see it from radically different perspectives. However, how does this perfect blend come from a flawed member of mankind.

This is where I believe grace of God and gospel come crashing in to save the day. It is God's perfect power of revelation and Jesus' reunification with God and man that allows Him to penetrate the wall between the soul and the mind. Without this saving grace, not only would we be eternally separated from our loving Creator, but we would eternally flounder in our search for truth, hopelessly tipped from one side of the scale to the other, either being buried in a desperate search for arbitrary facts or floating in a dream world clouded with misguided feelings. This balance of truth, I believe, can only come from the only truly balanced being and without that, life would be hopeless and a pointless search for nothing.

However, one of the most profound things that brings me to worship about truth and God is that the search is never really over and there is always more to discover as I grow older and more and more is revealed to me. I believe that ultimate truth is much bigger than we can imagine and can only perfectly be understood if it is seen from the perspective of God. However, truth is not a hopeless search, and I also believe that God will give us just enough revelation in our studies, and our physical and emotional feelings in order to equip us for the world around us, as well as bringing us closer to a better relationship with Him. He is a God of truth, peace, revelation, joy, and authentic emotion, and every aspect of Him draws us closer and closer to Him.