Community Update from Dr. Bob: 5/15/2024
If you were at worship service this past Sunday, you may have seen people using the AeroPress. You may have had someone show you how to use the AeroPress. You may have been able to use it to make yourself a cup of coffee. You may even have then been able to show someone else how to use the AeroPress. It was a hands-on process—a bit different, a bit messy, a bit experimental. Yet engaging and relational, and yielding what was hopefully a great cup of coffee.
And if you stayed for the sermon, you know the AeroPress wasn’t just a new way to get coffee before the service. It was a living illustration of how discipleship can work. Instead of ordering your coffee through an app or pouring yourself some from a pot that was already made, you engaged in a relational learning process. The process required interacting with others, watching someone try it, giving it a try yourself, and hopefully showing someone else how to do it.
The experience was a great example of how Jesus made disciples: slowly, relationally, following a model, walking through it together, communally, intentionally, one-on-one or in very small groups. And how he DIDN’T make disciples: fast, anonymous, transactional, contactless, frictionless, conveniently, via app or video instructions.
As Pastor Brett shared, there is a cost for doing things the way Jesus did them. But if we are willing to settle for transactions, we will never experience transformation. As a church, we are moving toward the way of transformation. It’s uncomfortable and it will cost us, but it is so worth it.
One of the ways we’ll be engaging this transformation is through our new Friday night service over the summer. This worship service is not just at a different time, it will be designed to show us a different way. It will be interactive, practice-based, and relational. It will be a hands-on way to participate in the three next steps Pastor Brett shared at the end of his sermon:
- Learn: Sit at Jesus’ feet
- Act: Put on a New Habit
- Share: Invite Someone New
I encourage you to check out Friday Night Church, starting June 7 at 6:30pm throughout the summer. And remember, if you come on Sunday mornings, the service time will be 9:45am.
Please also take time this week to pray for the board: For wisdom as to the next steps for Community to embrace and embody this vision. For courage to take those next steps. For the faith in God’s faithfulness even as the way we think about and go about church and ministry changes.
