Category: Uncategorized

July & August Are “Change Your Muscle Memory” Awareness Months at Grace Hill

Musclememorypicture

Let me explain.  No, we haven’t purchased a health club or started offering yoga classes at the middle school, although I could probably benefit from a little yoga right about now.  What we’re focusing on in July and August at Grace Hill is retraining our church “memory muscles.”  Many of us, including myself, grew up in the church and in doing so developed “church habits and beliefs” that became ingrained into our spiritual muscle memory…some of those were true and helpful, but others were not and I find myself fighting it constantly.  The most difficult muscle to retrain is often the muscle that controls the belief that the church exists for itself (Matt. 28:19-20, Acts 1:8).  I doubt many Christians would disagree with this theoretically, but most would confess that they stumble over that practically – including myself.  That’s why, I’ve decided to change our Sunday morning location and format for the months of July and August that we might retrain our muscle memory.  So instead of meeting at Cherokee Middle School, we will meet in a couple members’ homes in July and August.  Instead of our normal worship services, we are going to work through the Gospel In Life curriculum by Tim Keller, which, Lord willing, will help me and all of Grace Hill see how the gospel is lived out in all of life–first in our heart, then in our community, and then out into the world.  This is a bold initiative, one in which I have prayed over, sought wise counsel, and talked to each individual family unit about.  Everyone was enthusiastic about it and we had our first session this past Sunday.  It was incredibly impacting for us and we left feeling encouraged.   Pray for us that we might have success in retraining our muscle memory to operate under the belief that the church exists for those outside of it.

July & August Are “Change Your Muscle Memory” Awareness Months at Grace Hill

Musclememorypicture

Let me explain.  No, we haven’t purchased a health club or started offering yoga classes at the middle school, although I could probably benefit from a little yoga right about now.  What we’re focusing on in July and August at Grace Hill is retraining our church “memory muscles.”  Many of us, including myself, grew up in the church and in doing so developed “church habits and beliefs” that became ingrained into our spiritual muscle memory…some of those were true and helpful, but others were not and I find myself fighting it constantly.  The most difficult muscle to retrain is often the muscle that controls the belief that the church exists for itself (Matt. 28:19-20, Acts 1:8).  I doubt many Christians would disagree with this theoretically, but most would confess that they stumble over that practically – including myself.  That’s why, I’ve decided to change our Sunday morning location and format for the months of July and August that we might retrain our muscle memory.  So instead of meeting at Cherokee Middle School, we will meet in a couple members’ homes in July and August.  Instead of our normal worship services, we are going to work through the Gospel In Life curriculum by Tim Keller, which, Lord willing, will help me and all of Grace Hill see how the gospel is lived out in all of life–first in our heart, then in our community, and then out into the world.  This is a bold initiative, one in which I have prayed over, sought wise counsel, and talked to each individual family unit about.  Everyone was enthusiastic about it and we had our first session this past Sunday.  It was incredibly impacting for us and we left feeling encouraged.   Pray for us that we might have success in retrain our muscle memory to operate under the belief that the church exists for those outside of it.

the pursuit of loneliness

I’ve been thinking a lot about community, what it is, where it is found and how it happens, particularly in our little “slice of heaven” here in Springfield.  In the church, we talk about being a community and experiencing community, but do we really know what that means and how we go about enjoying it?  As I’ve thought about it, it seems to me that we want the benefits of community (connectedness) without the work of community (nakedness – sharing our lives), and because we aren’t willing to do the hard work of community, the best we can hope for is a “Starbucks community.”  It’s where we share a love of expensive coffee (in the same room with each other) without sharing our lives.  It’s a kind of pseudo-community.  

So why aren’t we willing to do the hard work of community?  We don’t want to be inconvenienced or uncomfortable or tied up in someone else’s life.  Where does that come from?  Ultimately, I think it comes from fear.  Fear of not having the time to do what we want to do or enough money to buy what we want or enough life to live like we want.  And so we seek a private house, a private means of transportation, a private garden, a private laundry, self-service stores, and do-it-yourself skills of every kind.  An enormous technology seems to have set itself the task of making it unnecessary for one human being ever to ask anything of another in the course of going about his daily business.  Even within the family Americans are unique in their feeling that each member should have a separate room, and even a separate telephone, television, and car when economically possible.  We seek more and more privacy, and feel more and more alienated and lonely when we get it. (Philip Slater, sociologist, The Pursuit of Loneliness, 1970)
Jesus, deliver me from that kind of thinking and living.  Show me that living in light of the cross means that I can willingly and joyfully give up my life for others because you did so for me, and in so doing gave me the life I thought I could never have.  Forgive us for rejecting the community that you have called us to be in.  Move us from living our lives privately to publicly that the world may know of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus.

the pursuit of loneliness

I’ve been thinking a lot about community, what it is, where it is found and how it happens, particularly in our little “slice of heaven” here in Springfield.  In the church, we talk about being a community and experiencing community, but do we really know what that means and how we go about enjoying it?  As I’ve thought about it, it seems to me that we want the benefits of community (connectedness) without the work of community (nakedness – sharing our lives), and because we aren’t willing to do the hard work of community, the best we can hope for is a “Starbucks community.”  It’s where we share a love of expensive coffee (in the same room with each other) without sharing our lives.  It’s a kind of pseudo-community.  

So why aren’t we willing to do the hard work of community?  We don’t want to be inconvenienced or uncomfortable or tied up in someone else’s life.  Where does that come from?  Ultimately, I think it comes from fear.  Fear of not having the time to do what we want to do or enough money to buy what we want or enough life to live like we want.  And so we seek a private house, a private means of transportation, a private garden, a private laundry, self-service stores, and do-it-yourself skills of every kind.  An enormous technology seems to have set itself the task of making it unnecessary for one human being ever to ask anything of another in the course of going about his daily business.  Even within the family Americans are unique in their feeling that each member should have a separate room, and even a separate telephone, television, and car when economically possible.  We seek more and more privacy, and feel more and more alienated and lonely when we get it. (Philip Slater, sociologist, The Pursuit of Loneliness, 1970)

Jesus, deliver me from that kind of thinking and living.  Show me that living in light of the cross means that I can willingly and joyfully give up my life for others because you did so for me, and in so doing gave me the life I thought I could never have.  Forgive us for rejecting the community that you have called us to be in.  Move us from living our lives privately to publicly that the world may know of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus.