Believe it or not, but we've already reached the last main chapter of the book. There is still an epilogue and a few appendices left to go, but Rutz has finished making his main points.
That being said, let's take a minute to reflect on the last two chapters. Rutz has described part of the solution needed to facilitate this Mega Shift. If we start "doing church" differently, it will change the way we live outside of our meetings. Empower people in our meetings, and they will live empowered lives the other six days of the week.
It's not so clear how we can apply this to our local setting. Chi Alpha isn't a church really. Almost all of us belong to both Chi Alpha and a local church near Purdue. But maybe Chi Alpha offers the flexibility to try some new things and attempt to live out some of the stuff from Mega Shift.
If you haven't read Josh V.'s thoughts on the last chapter, I suggest you do so. I'd like springboard off of his response. He gave a real, concrete example of one way we could tweak our gatherings in light of the stuff we're reading in Mega Shift. I want to know what the rest of you think.
How can we best incorporate some of the things from Chapters 4 and 5 into Chi Alpha? Maybe our Ignite meetings are the place, but maybe they aren't. Do you think Josh V. is on the right track, or has he been rolling in the catnip? (I figured that was a more polite euphemism than some of the alternatives).
Maybe you have already experienced Chapter 5 stuff in the Chi Alpha setting. If so, when was that, what happened, and what was the result? What are some areas where we are already on the right track?
For example, I thought it was awesome a while back when Nate Hyland got up in front of everyone and confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord. I'd never seen anything like that in a "service" kind of setting before. I was really encouraged (edified?) by that. I think it's cool that he felt the freedom to just walk up, grab the mic, and do something like that.
What about you?
2 comments:
I, too, was way encouraged by Nate Hyland's confession that night, and I hope our group continues to grow more in that direction. I agree with Rutz that we need to make more space for testimonies, confession, spontaneous songs, waiting on God, gifts of the Spirit, etc. We tried to encourage those things at our Ignite meetings last year, but sometimes it felt a bit strained and pre-programmed. Hopefully, it will get easier the more we get to know one another--people will be more willing to take risks. And perhaps there are other things we can do to encourage more participation. I think we should pray more that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to flow with Him as a body...at Ignite, during prayer meetings, in our fellowship, whatever we do...
As an aside, I need to respond to Josh's request that I clarify my comment on Chap. 4 that not having pastoral leadership makes accountability difficult. Many of Pastor Linda's comments on authority address this topic (see her comment on chap. 4). I guess the main issue is that we should each have people in our lives that will take spiritual responsibility for us and will be honest about their assessment of our walk. If we fall into error or imbalance in some area, we need someone who will take the responsibility to say something to us. When everyone is on the same level in terms of authority, there is no one pre-designated to take that responsibility. Essentially, we need someone who will call us out!
Regarding Chap. 5, I was unexpectedly excited about several of Rutz' ideas. I still think he sees things a little too black and white, but some of these very practical examples could help us move with the Spirit better as a group. For example, I loved the suggestion to have someone give a 5-10 minute talk on a subject and then have everyone else comment and pitch in their thoughts.
I also liked Josh V.'s suggestion that the "message" aspect could be more of a springboard into prayer. I find it awfully easy to file away the spiritually-related information we receive in church or at XA in a mental storage compartment, with the intention to later incorporate it into my life, only to realize I never did so because I didn't take adequate time to respond and petition God for change in my life and in everyone else. We have response times at XA but they are usually quite private - that's good on occassion, but maybe we could grow into more corporate response times.
I don't know; these are just ideas...
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