Spilt Wine

I recently was invited at a symposium involving church members and elders. I was especially invited by the pastor. He was interested in my thoughts, as a newer attendee, of the direction of the church. We broke up into small groups and were given a list of goals and purposes the church wanted to meet and achieve. Number one on the list was being/becoming a “Relational Church”. I thought that would be a great place to start, so I asked my group to define what that meant, which proved to be a little more difficult than I thought. When the question was turned on me, I had a hard time finding words to define what a “Relational Church” was. I have been wrestling with that for the last week and I believe I have come to an idea of what that possibly could mean.

I think to be a “Relational Church”, the church must understand the significances and purpose of relationships. We can't escape relationships. Relationships are who we are and what God intended. God himself is relational. We know this about God by his relationship with Himself, (Trinity) and his interaction with his creation, us. To begin understanding how relationships work within faith, we need to rethink, or at the very least look at our own relationships, starting with our relationship Jesus, our spouse, children, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and all the people we often over look, such as the bag boy at Savemart, the waitress at our favorite restaurant, the bank teller and the coffee shop baristas.

So what do we do with all of these relationships we have? Some would say be “intentional”. Intentional about what I would reply? Being intentional about sharing Jesus? I think that’s what people are tired of hearing. People want to experience Jesus not just hear about it. “Show me, don’t tell me”. Lets go back to the word intentional. What if we were intentional about being Christ-like? What would happen if we were intentionally Christ-like to all of the people we came into contact throughout the day? Could those we have contact with experience a little bit of Christ?

A “Relational Church” is more than just being Christ-like to all that we have contact with. It is understanding that there are hurting and lonely people out in the world and that they should not be ignored. It’s understanding that faith and life is bigger than the individual. It’s understanding that we experience holy moments with one another, at any given place. It’s understanding that we learn and grow from one another. Just like Iron sharpens Iron, man Sharpens man (Proverbs 27:17). It’s understanding that we are all connected because we are all apart of His greater story. It's about not becoming isolationist, rather breaking away from the "christian made bubble" and inter-acting with the community at large and those of different faith or no faith at all. It's about inviting people into your life. In addition to all of this, it’s about doing something about it.

God help me do something about it.

I am currently reading The Present Future by Reggie McNeal. I found this passage in the book to be very true and thought provoking.

He writes: The first reformation was about freeing the church. The new Reformation is about freeing God’s people from the church (the institution). The original Reformation decentralized the church. The new Reformation decentralizes ministry. The former Reformation occurred when clergy were no longer willing to take marching orders for their ministry from the Pope. The current Reformation finds church members no longer willing for clergy to script their personal spiritual ministry journey. The last Reformation moved the church closer to home. The new Reformation is moving the church closer to the world. The historic Reformation distinguished Christians from the other. The current Reformation is distinguishing followers of Jesus from religious people. The European Reformation assumed the church to be a part of the cultural-political order. The Reformation currently under way does not rely on the cultural-political order to prop up the church. The initial Reformation was about the church. The new Reformation is about mission.
R. McNeal pp 43