danielredbeard’s weblog

Talk about change – seems like big changes are happening everywhere I turn in my life. Tonight I had a few conversations, and thought a lot about other conversations I’ve had in the last week. It seems all but inevitable that the house church we have been part of for nearly 2 years is fizzling out of existence.

I could write a long post on why I think it’s happening, but it would be a very personal, esoteric post. Suffice to say, community – real Community – is not easy at all. It requires more faith, more grace, and more humility than one might think. The trick is that everyone has to be willing to go to that place of more faith, grace, and humility. If not, the breakdown will come, and it might just come after relationships have developed. The breakdown acts as a cancer within the relationship, eating it from within. Then suddenly BAM… it’s over.

Tonight I tried – likely poorly – to comfort my wife as she lay crying on our sofa regarding the near-complete lack of inquiries about her health and well-being from our house church “community.” As I write this I can only use the word “stunned” to describe how I feel at the moment. Did she do something to piss everyone off? Why no calls, why no visit? Why…?

We do have a handful of dear friends who have been keeping in touch. Two of her friends live in California, and would be here with her doing whatever they could if they could. One of these friend even sent us a gift card to Applebees because she can’t be here to deliver a meal! Now that is the love of Christ demonstrated… not just talked about.

And that’s what irks me, I suppose:  The Church I am familiar with here in the Midwest is mostly one of reaction and talk, not of pro-action and that faith/works combo James (and Jesus ) was a fan of.  Drives me nuts while making me really sad at the same time.

Brennan Manning is probably most famous for his book “The Ragamuffin Gospel,” and secondarily famous for his spoken blurb before a mid-90s DC Talk song where he says something like (paraphrase): The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips (words), but deny Him by their lifestyle. THAT is what an unbelieving world finds so unbelievable.