Community

I am now in my second class at Rockbridge Seminary and am loving the experience. The class I am taking now is called The Theology and Practice of Fellowship. Its focus is on the reason for and the how-to of biblical community. In reading a book, called The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community, I found a story that sounds so truly American that it hurts. It talks about a family that desires true relationship so bad, yet for all that they are involved with are unable to find it.

Then, I had a strange desire to watch Rent the other night with Ginger. While I have seen the Off-Broadway show and seen the movie already, something really struck me watching it this last time, curled up on the couch. What I was seeing in the lives of these friends was real community. One shared money they had.  Another shared what food (okay, and drink) they had. Sounding familiar yet? Not only did they share what they had, but they were there for each other in the good and the bad. In other words, it wasn’t a relationship of convenience.

2nd Week Down

Well, I have finished my second week of classes and things are moving along. This past week was a lot more engaging than the first week. The odd thing about it is that while there was a lot more reading and work to do this week, I enjoyed it a whole lot more than the first week. Why? Because this was the first week that we really started to interact with each other online. One thing that I love about working with others is learning from a different perspective. Each person brings their own background, culture and personality to the table and you get to see things through their eyes. I long for that type of interaction. At the church in Germany where I was an associate pastor (Victory International), I loved hearing from Germans, Polish, Africans, etc. on all of their experiences and how they were led to Christ.