Authentic Community and the American Lifestyle

"The biggest challenge facing the church is to address the fragmentation and discontinuity of the American lifestyle."
- Lyle E. Schaller

I read the following this morning in Sam O'Neal's post at Out of Ur:

Randy Frazee spoke on the call to community. According to Frazee, the average American family manages 35 separate relationships on a day-to-day basis—children, extended family, neighbors, government, school, friends, work, Starbucks employees, landlords, telemarketers, etc. And this is before that family gets invited to church, which usually adds another 6 connections—at least.
As a result, Americans are knee-deep in the unprecedented phenomenon of grouped isolation—what Frazee refers to as "crowded loneliness." We are in desperate need of meaningful relationships, yet too busy and too pulled to maintain them.

Thirty-five separate relationships? No wonder I'm so tired. What can we do? How will we ever conquer the busyness of life? I think one crucial step is to recognize that this is an American phenomenon. Well, that's too narrow. Perhaps "western" would be a better adjective. But it makes me think of Jesus parable in Mark 4: "...the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word...." And not just the word. They also choke authentic community.

What can we do? We need to pull some weeds.

Comments

What makes you happy in God?

"...above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord." - George Mueller The first order of business every day, says Mueller, is to get my soul happy in God. Great advice. But I've not yet mastered the technique. One of the ways I like to do that is by thinking about glory. I don't know exactly what glory looks like. I've been asking God to show it to me lately, but he's not yet given me a big glorious experience. The Apostle Paul, however, must have had a strong vision of it: "...the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." - Romans 8:18-19 And talk about suffering! Paul knew suffering: "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three timesI was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea...." -2 Cor. 11:24-25 So, Paul suffered much, but said it couldn't be compared wi...

Teaching my kids about the bloody atonement

Our memory verse this week is 1 Peter 2:24: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." As I was working on memorizing it during my prayer time today it occurred to me that I should use this verse to teach my kids about the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Why? Why do I think it's important to teach them about the atonement? The atonement is one of the central doctrines of Christianity. Paul said, "I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." The tendency in American churches is to get soft on sin and not talk too much about the bloody atonement of Christ. A full understanding of the atonement will grab their hearts. It will inspire worship. If they understand who God is and why he does what he does then the roots of their faith will sink deep into the soil of God's love and they will bear the fruit of righteousness. So, here...

The PAPA Prayer

What is prayer? Will I ever master it? Last night our "Book of Every Other Month Club" met at Barnes & Noble to discuss The PAPA Prayer , by Larry Crabb. Not everyone in the group appreciated the book. I did. One of the things I liked about Crabb's teaching is that the PAPA prayer moves me. It starts with an honest look at where I am and takes me deeper into me than I want to go. PAPA then teaches me to look up to God and moves me out of the muddy pit of my flesh and sets my feet on the Rock. I agree with Matthew Hoffman who said, "I spend far too much time contemplating myself (my desires, my opinions, my thoughts, etc.) and never enough time contemplating my Savior's work and grace. I am so very thankful for men like Mr. Jerry Bridges, C.J. Mahaney and of course Mr. Spurgeon himself who call us to 'preach the gospel to ourselves every day!'" If prayer leaves me stuck on me and my desires then I am lost in a deep, empty pit. If, however, I can ...

TopekaStew

Search This Blog