Intimacy
According
to Dick Meyer, Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in
Church
sociologists are people who study growing congregations in this country. Dick
Meyer summarized their findings into seven things that a vibrant church should
do. The church should:
1.
Center its life in the person of Jesus Christ.
2. See the Scriptures as that which determines the
boundaries of the
Christian
faith.
3.
Function as a seminary equipping her members for ministry.
4. Restore integrity to membership, linking discipleship with
member-
ship.
5.
Offer worship experiences that make sense to people.
6. Be constantly open to the new
thing God is doing, being careful
not to put new wine
into old wineskins.
7. Use
small groups to build significant Christian community.
Quite an interesting list. We, who are Bible Students, who
are still interested in building up our congregations, should take note. One of
the roots of this list is the idea of building a sense of Christian community: a spiritual community that seeks to
learn, grow and serve together. The ideal Christian
community should foster intimacy, both between members and between each
individual member and God.
People
today seem to be seeking such intimacy and yet also seem to be afraid of it.
While often sensing something lacking in their lives and wanting to satisfy
that inner need, many also build a wall around themselves and almost seem to instinctively push
away any-one who comes close to penetrating it. All human relationships are
tricky. And those which involve the spiritual can be even trickier.
Really
close friendship and fellowship must be built on mutual spiritual life goals.
For a church to be spiritually effective, it must create a climate that
encourages individual and corporate spiritual growth. This means that intimate
friendships and fellowship must thrive. These can only be based on mutual
commitments to develop Christian character. People with common and strong
commitments to Christ and to each other must feel free to share openly, correct
each other, and enjoy the struggle together.
Modern society demands that we be able to
quantify and measure the effectiveness and efficiency of everything we do. But
this is very difficult in the spiritual arena. There simply is no quick
calculus by which to determine spiritual success. The spiritual life does offer
primarily relationships: both with God through Jesus Christ and with fellow Christians
through Jesus Christ. Relationships do not easily submit to quantification.
The
only real measurement of successful Christian intimacy is by means of the
spiritual fruit produced in and through our lives by the Holy Spirit. The
growing and production of good fruit takes time; it cannot be hurried. Fortunately,
by the grace of God, we have been given a lifetime. May we submit our lives to
God, allowing Him to do His work in us. May we
willingly risk the exposure of self that is necessary for spiritual intimacy.
L. Urbaniak
Christian
Fellowship
Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred
minds is like to that above.
Blest are the sons of
peace, whose hearts and hopes are one,
Whose kind designs to serve
and please through all their actions run.
Before our Father’s throne,
we pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our
aims are one, our comforts and
our cares.
We share our mutual woes;
our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other
flows the sympathizing tear.
When we asunder part, O may
this mutual love
Encourage every fainting
heart, his zeal and faith to prove.
Our glorious hope revives
our courage every day,
While each in expectation
strives to run the heavenly way.
John Fawcett (1740-1817)