coming back to the point (and packing our bags for re-entry)

I haven't flipped the calendar yet, but I've been thinking already about the moment when I will tomorrow.  It's because I'll be able to see clearly that we are entering our last week of Sabbatical.  We've already been reflecting on the activities and highlights of the past weeks, and are beginning to anticipate what it will be like to "re-enter" our lives and work in Vancouver.  Gideon said today, "I am ready to go back but I will miss it here."  And Levi said, "I miss our living room in Vancouver."

So, each of us is eager to go back for various reasons.  We have missed the Farmer's Market every Saturday, and the new playground at Trout Lake.  We miss our neighbours and will be happy to bump into them on the sidewalk.  (We miss sidewalks for that reason!)  We miss seeing the babies in the church... how much they must have grown since we left in April!   We miss the eclectic, familiar congregation which we have grown to love so much.  We miss the worship in our congregation.

We are even looking forward to the routine of going to school in the fall, knowing that the rhythm is good for our family.  

But once we are back, we're sure that we'll miss the flexibility of sabbatical, the unforced rhythms and the daily delight of being together without interruption.  We've loved the freedom to take another book from the pile, with the permission to sit coffee in hand, and delve into another topic.  We've fully embraced the joy of evenings at home, the pleasure of putting the boys to bed without hurry, knowing that we can recline in the quiet living room with a glass of wine and the time to unwind.  

Which goes without saying, I suppose, that I am sort of dreading the return of meetings.  I once came across a trailer for an old British comedy called "Meetings, Bloody Meetings."  Having watched only a few minutes of it was enough to spark side-splitting laughter.  The parody of a disengaged, unprepared chair person and a room full of equally unprepared attendees was as funny as it was tragic.  

What seems to go without being said about church meetings is that they must happen.  But why do we do them the way we do?  I don't just mean to wonder about our unswerving loyalty to the guidelines for meetings a la Robert's Rules.  I understand that if we didn't schedule the gatherings the way we do or record and conduct them the way we do, that we might spiral to the poor depths of misery experienced in the "Bloody Meetings" by the employees in the comedy.  However, what is so sacred about meetings that we repeat them the way we do?   

The best meetings, in my mind, are the ones that are held ad hoc in response to a particular need, or that somehow deviate from the agenda so that we can discuss what really matters to people in the church.  I know it's important to discuss administrative details, and for this reason it's necessary to have scheduled meetings, but I believe we have mistakenly overlooked some of the more important matters, the things which our people really find to be close to the heart.  Somehow, we've agreed that it isn't necessary to have a clearly articulated vision or purpose as a congregation.  But for how long can we go on this way?  

One of the things I gleaned from the conference for Women Speakers early in the spring was that any time a speaker does not clearly articulate her objective, the hidden objective will take over.  75% percent of the time listeners will not be able to identify what the main point of the talk was... even as they are heading out of the auditorium. In fact, 50% of the speakers can't identify the objective of their talk/lecture/sermon unless they have clearly stated their point ahead of time.  The point worth noting is that whenever the hidden objective takes over due to the absence of a clearly articulate objective, the hidden objective is usually not a good one.  

How many of us can clearly articulate what the point of all of our meetings is?  Why are we actually gathering?  What is the thing burning in our hearts?  What has prompted us to forego a potentially sacred, quiet evening in our homes to sit around a table in a dark basement poring over an agenda?  

What about our prayer meetings?  Do we dare talk about the ratio of time spent in our administrative meetings versus the time spent in worship and prayer meetings?  What does that say about what's really important to us and where we feel our decisions are actually made?   Is this the way we want it to be?  Without having made a clear objective, it's possible that the hidden objective has already taken over... the hidden objective of asserting control over decisions and "progress" according to our pre-established ideas of what ought to happen in church, which is usually based on what has happened in the past.  

But are we prepared to crack open the possibility of allowing things to look different than they have?  And will we be willing to train ourselves to approach decision-making from a posture of worship and prayer rather than from a desire to maintain control while leaning on rational-logical-responsible protocol?  

I'm reminded of Paul's letter to Timothy where he gives instructions about how God's household of faith ought to conduct themselves.  Paul is wise and rooted in Christ, so compassionate toward the  community of believers and firm about his convictions that the church must cultivate purity and godliness.  Doing things with order and decency is good, as he mentions to the Corinthians, but the real value is being firmly established in Christ.  

Paul writes: 

¹⁴ Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, ¹⁵ if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. ¹⁶ Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:

He appeared in the flesh,
    was vindicated by the Spirit,^[d]
was seen by angels,
    was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
    was taken up in glory.

Does what we do spring from our contemplation of this mystery?  If it doesn't, what is our activity rooted in?  And if we are not actively pursuing the command to love with a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith, what are we doing? 

____________________

"If you are walking backward, away from something you think is a mistake, you may be right in supposing it is a mistake, but for you to be walking backward is never right.  You know what happens to people who walk backward....  We are meant to walk forward, not backward, and reaction is always a matter of walking backward." - J. I. Packer