Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 17 – Finding our place
Flourishing community
[Bible references: Proverbs 17:17; 27:10; Ecclesiastes 4:9-10; Romans 12; Philippian 4:4-9; Hebrews 10:19-25; 13:2;1 Peter 1:12 22; 4:9; 2 Peter 1:3-11]
One mark of the Kingdom of God is the presence of communities that flourish. In this in-between time, these communities will not be any more perfect than the individuals within the community. But there are practices that we can engage in that will help our communities flourish. How we share our lives as individuals, congregations, or families will either draw people in or push them away. Within the culture that surrounds us, there are many practices that serve to isolate individuals, creating loneliness and emotional fragility. However, within the context of healthy congregations, there are various practices that serve not only to build us up within the church community but can also impact the communities around us. Christine Pohl has identified four characteristics that will sustain flourishing communities:[1]
- Gratefulness: As much as we are aware of how God has provided for us and we are secure in that knowledge, our gratitude can flourish. When we have gratitude, our lives will be enhanced by being more likely to notice what is good and beautiful around us. When our hearts are grateful, we are enabled to increase our ability to love and to offer grace to one another.
“Be thankful for the smallest blessing, and you will deserve to receive greater. Value the least gifts no less than the greatest, and simple graces as especial favors. If you remember the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or mean, for nothing can be valueless that is given by the most high God.” [2]
2. Making and keeping promises: We arrange much of our lives according to our expectations of others’ behavior and the promises they make. Broken promises lead to a sense of betrayal and disappointment to the loss of integrity of the promise maker. On the other hand, promises that are kept strengthen our commitment and love with one another and provides stability for the community.[3]
“The history of the human race, as well as the story of any one life, might be told in terms of commitments. . . At the heart of this history . . . lies a sometimes hidden narrative of promises, pledges, oaths, compacts, committed beliefs, and projected visions.” [4]
3. Truth-filled lives:[5] Without expectations of truth, there can be no trust. One need only to look at the broken social and political environment that we have today and see the consequences of a society in which trust is broken.
4. Hospitality:[6] To be truly hospitable is to recognize each other’s common humanity, to set aside the priorities of efficiency and instead, to care for and nurture one another, to prioritize our needs for rest and renewal. According to a tradition in Africa, no one individual is a host but the rather it is the community that offers hospitality.
“Welcome is one of the signs that a community is alive. To invite others to live with us is a sign that we aren’t afraid, that we have a treasure of truth and of peace to share.;” Ogletree, Thomas. Hospitality to the Stranger (Fortress Press, 1985) “to be moral is to be hospitable to the stranger.” [7]
All the characteristics mentioned above should ideally be present in the Christian community. When we notice their absence from the communities around us, we can see the destruction created by their absence. A healthy church then has the opportunity to bring a healing influence into the communities around us. As Leslie Newbigin has stated, “the presence of a new reality will be made known by the acts that originate from it.”[8]
One of the challenges/opportunities for the church is to maintain those healthy characteristics across all the boundaries of the different groups within the church so that there is healthy interaction between married and single adults, between adults and children, between different ethnic groups. Paying attention to those interactions within the church will help to navigate those interactions with those outside the church.
Linked to the gift of hospitality is the gift of friendship. Because this gift is costly in the amount of time and energy that we devote to someone else, exercising this gift outside the bounds of the church will usually require significant intentionality,
[1] Pohl, Living into Community, Cultivating Practices that Sustain us William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 2012. eBook
[2] Kempis, Thomas à. The Imitation of Christ early 15th century (Chapter 35)
[3] Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition University of Chicago Press, 1958, p.244
[4] Farley, Margaret A. Personal Commitments: Beginning, Keeping, Changing Harper & Row, 1986,pp. 12-13, 34, 38
[5] Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica, Vol 2, Question109: “Of Truth”
[6] Vanier, Jean, Community and Growth 1979
[7] Turyomumazima, Bonaventure, “Africa Files – Christ in Africa: Stranger, Guest, Host” www.africafiles.org/printableversion.asp?id=14009 (no longer available); De Vries, Roland. Becoming a Guest: Christology and Ecclesiological Identity Erudit Volume 25, Numero 2, 2017 p. 165-184 www.erudit.org/fr/revues/theologi/2017-v25-n2-theologi04371/1056942ar (p. 165-184)
[8] Chilcote, Paul and Warner, Laceye” The Study of Evangelism: Exploring a Missional Practice of the Church. Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2008 Chapter Four, Leslie Newbigin. Evangelism in the context of secularization.
Reflect
Of the characteristics mentioned by Pohl, which are evident in your local church community?
Observe
Read 2 Peter 1:3-11. What would a community look like if everyone was living out this passage?
Dancing In The Kingdom 