Companionship and learning and being the church

Good morning from the peacefulness of my gazebo “cave.” I slept out here because the weather forecast was calling for more thunder and lightning, and I didn’t want to miss its glory! Well, as it turned out, I had to settle for a sudden whipped-up windstorm which made the covering flap furiously, and then rain pounding down on the huge white tarp that wraps itself around this gazebo and turns it into a desert igloo! Still, it was great – and with the fresh, cool late summer air, I slept like a baby…

In the past few weeks, I have daily been reading a Psalm (or part of a long one) and recording the names given for God, His attributes and His gifts to us, and how we can respond to Him. Here’s my record for Psalm 119:57-64:

The lovingkindness of the LORD fills the earth. He is my portion. He teaches me His statutes. I keep His words, seek His favor and graciousness, follow His testimonies, keep His commandments, remember His law, and thank Him because of His righteousness. I seek companionship with those who fear Him and keep His precepts.

And here is my response, my thoughts…

As I recorded the lines above, it not only reminded me of the importance of knowing and following Your word, Father God, and of Your love and grace to me, but it also spoke to me of the importance of finding my human companionship among those who fear You and keep Your precepts. Of course we cannot – and should not – avoid interaction with those “in the world,” but “companionship” in this context, I think, refers to more than just general acquaintances, or even the type of friendships we have with those we work with, or share a neighborhood with, or whatever. I think it looks at deeper friendship, a sharing of values, indeed a sharing of the heart, a walking together with You – which cannot happen with those who do not know You.

At any rate, we do need each other, the body of Christ, Your church – if You are at the center (otherwise, of course, it isn’t Your church, no matter what we claim). And we need each other beyond simply acquaintance at a weekly meeting (in which we mainly sit or stand and look at the back of each other’s heads, and of course at the pastor or worship team or whoever has the place of honor up front). There have been times and places when the choir would be at the rear of the “church” – with the congregation in the middle area – all facing forward toward the altar or cross or whatever symbol (even an empty chair) where the people imagined You seated. There is something to that; though of course always the danger of worshiping the icon or space where we place You.

It does seem that as fleshly beings we feel driven to – or at least safe and comfortable with – a God that we can physically see and touch in some manner, or at least place in some distinct location. I think we tend to regard the Old Testament Israelites with some scorn for so easily succumbing to following idols, or at least worshiping icons like the brass serpent on the pole. And yet don’t we often do that ourselves with the holy places, temples, church buildings we erect and faithfully trek to, for the supposed purpose of meeting You and worshiping You. (Though You Yourself have made it clear that we ourselves are the “temple of the Holy Spirit” when we believe in You.) Furthermore, within the holy places we construct, don’t we even have a tendency to bow toward the space which we dedicate, consciously or subconsciously, as a holy of holies, and don’t we also tend to appoint and bow to people we consider as especially holy, as we somehow expect this will draw us nearer to You. And then, doesn’t our worship begin to focus on other things: on the ability of the pastor to preach a powerful sermon, or on the ability of the worship team and/or leader to sing and play beautifully, to give us a wonderful feeling of God’s presence, or even on the beauty of the building itself or the artwork it contains.

And yet – what happens if we reject the established, traditional church building and ecclesiastical, denominational structures? It seems so often that we instantly seek after a new structure, or even simply move the old structure into a new building, whether that be a storefront location, or a theater, or a gymnasium, or even a house. How difficult it seems for us to escape our traditions and structures, including our buildings and icons.

I have companions who have left formal association with traditional “churches” and now, as “free range Christians,” they seek to move among the body, the church universal, and just enjoy companionship with Christ among his family, wherever they meet them in whatever context. Alternatively, others who have left traditional structures now seek to find their spiritual life in personal relationship with Christ, and in interaction with the body through books, emails, TV preaching, personal friendships, and so on. Others seem eventually (or quickly) to move into other “established churches.”

Of course, another possibly alternative is “house churches,” though in my community they don’t seem to really develop “successfully.” Some people suggest it is our local “culture” that mitigates against house churches. For me, personally, the aspect of starting a formal house church as an “alternative” or even as a supposedly total change, from “traditional church” seems kind of frightening. I remember when our family started home-schooling, which, without intending to, I almost instantly turned into “school at home.” Fortunately, my children objected loudly, pointing out that if we were just going to do school at home, they might as well go back to school where there was a gymnasium, library, etc (not to mention all their friends!).

So I ended up loosening up with the whole school thing. I didn’t have the courage to totally un-school, but we did start to de-school, talking to a lot of other people about their learning journey, trying out a lot of different paths, and gradually beginning to learn in a way that worked for us, that gave us joy, that allowed us to become, more and more, life-long learners, rather than simply “getting an education/ schooling” as a discrete and temporary part of our life. After awhile, our journey even allowed us to take advantage of system things, like Learning Centers and even schools, to the degree to which they met our needs, but did not take over our lives or become our only, or even main, way of learning.

We did develop some pretty deep companionships with fellow-learners, some of whom were home-schoolers with kids about the same age; but interestingly, our most significant companions, the ones we developed the deepest relationships with, and learned the most with, were people of all different ages, professions, lifestyles – but who had, as it turned out, two key things in common with us:

1. they loved learning, thinking, exploring – saw it as a life-long adventure that involved every aspect of life, AND, 2. they had a real relationship with God as the center of their life.

We didn’t “meet” with them on any kind of regular, planned schedule. But if we or they were involved in, or exploring, something we knew they’d find interesting, or of which they had knowledge that they could share with us, we’d give them a call, and get together to walk down that path of exploration for as long as it took, and wherever it took us. We’d also feel free to just “drop in” or have them “drop in” – and we’d often eat together, play together… even “go to church” or “take a class or course” together – whatever at that moment met our goal of being life-long learners.

Now you’ll note that I keep saying “we” in reference to our learning experience: that’s because this whole learning, education, school thing became an adventure we were involved in together – in our own family – and with those we shared the adventure and journey with.

Sometimes people would move away, or move on. But our sense of companionship didn’t end. And we didn’t worry about it or try to control it.

Admittedly, it was a lot easier to start and carry on this learning journey in a small community where we lived relatively close to each other physically, and indeed were likely to bump into each other frequently at the store, along the road, at community events, wherever. And because there weren’t nearly as many clubs and lessons and events and such, life wasn’t so busy.

But one thing I’ve been coming to realize recently is that joining up to all those formal things, programs, events, structures that keep us busy, is also a choice we make – and yes, “the church” can very easily become the busiest part of our lives. And it seems to me that when “church” and “busy” start coming together frequently, we are in trouble; just as we are when “busy” becomes an adjective for any aspect of our lives, replacing “joyful, meaningful, adventuresome…” – or, especially, replaces “God-centered.”

Perhaps we do have to do some de-churching if we really want “church” as in “relationship with Jesus and with His family” – just as our family had to de-school in order to really “school” as in “learning as a permanent and integral part of life.” So maybe it really is okay to “free range” – to see how others are part of the real church, and the many different ways the church can be an integral part of our entire lives – lives centered on our relationship with our Creator, Savior, God. And in that journey of exploration, adventure, we learn to let Him guide us, step by step, moment by moment, into life as part of His church, His body, His family, with Him at the center.

And yes, this journey will probably look a little different for each of us, and yes, it will probably change, at least on the surface level, over times and places, as long as it continues to deepen on the foundational level of our relationship with God – with Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit – and with the others in the family.

I suppose in a way it’s like the difference between a journey (travel, vacation) in which every moment of every day is meticulously planned out in advance and carried out with a hired guide who has already guided many others in exactly the same way (“10 European cities in 7 days!”); versus a journey in which one heads out with a backpack, a map, a willingness to ask questions and spend time with the locals, and a goal (“explore and get to know Europe!”). Some folks love the security of the former; others long for the adventure and spontenaity of the latter. Which one, I wonder, really lets one get to know Europe?

And what kind of journey really allows us to know Christ and be His church? Your thoughts?