From: Mike Anderson
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 12:33:27 PM
To: Rich A. Melheim
-a very interesting dialogue indeed. while i agree esp. having been in many
non-denominational settings (willow creek) and going to sem at fuller
theological that for many sacraments are of little concern, i do believe
that Lutherans have a wise understanding of how they can help in our faith
development. i believe that they were meant to be intensely practical and
full of experience. after all we do call them the means of grace! we need
something to touch, taste etc. in our faith life, plus we know that for
many lecture (ie. sermons sometimes) is not the way many are wired to learn.
we as Lutherans (and as evangelicals-hopefully) have a wonderful opportunity
in the 21st century to have the 2 sacraments be one way that the Word
becomes visible, touchable, tasteable, experienceable. plus we all know
Lutherans have a real hard time closing the deal. what i mean is that when
someone is coming close to conversion to Christ we are so afraid of getting
in the way of God that we back away from making it meaningful, memorable and
concrete. Baptism was the way that people entered the faith community in
early Christianity. It was a ritual but had meaning that stuck. And the
fact the many of the early baptisms in Acts were family events even gives
more credence to the family being the center of conversion, identification
and growth as disciples of Jesus.
I think one of the problems is that a lot of the people who are quite
interested in sacraments are also the ones that don't usually rub shoulders
with those would be termed "evangelicals", so there is general fear that
sacraments somehow represents something non-feeling, non-evangelical and
would move us more toward a Roman Catholic, high church, low passion feel.
But we do know that rituals can have meaning all depending on how it is
presented and taught.
Rich I am still processing 5th church and I do think the sacraments fit
quite well in all aspects of the 5th church. On another note, I know that
small groups are a big part of 5th church. And i know that a lot of church
growth movements are based on this concept of cell church/multiplication
etc.. I would commend to your reading on your sabbatical a book by Joseph
Myers. The title of his important book is, The Search to Belong: Rethinking
Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups
by Joseph R. Myers. Basically what he is positing is that often churches
think that small groups are the end all to producing spiritual growth. His
thesis is that people have different levels of intimacy based on the
setting, whether it be public, social, private, or intimate. Sometimes
small groups try to create intimacy when many are more comfortable with
living their faith out in public (ie. worship) and social settings. private
would be where private information is shared, and in the intimacy category
he recommends having no more that one or two or possibly three relationships
of that type. ie. if one is married obviously one's wife would be your
primary source of intimacy.
i thought of this because i know that the 5th group model has a lot of
focus on different types of groupings whether they be social, public etc...
and he argues that there are diff. competencies for each of these realms. i
had a chance to meet with Joseph with a small group of pastors and dana and
i really like his stuff. it is a little contrary to all the small group
hype that is out there, but he makes some valuable points. he is against
small groups, but just the manipulation that sometimes comes with it and
also not recognizing how much God works in all 4 realms. It is also makes
you aware of how you categorize people in the church as insiders and
outsiders. Usually the most involved persons are the insiders ie. those
involved in small groups and a million other things. but what about the
person who just plays in the bell's choir and comes to church ... what is
that all about? anyways just some musings for you. again he is not
against small groups but importantly looks at the dynamics of creating an
environment where people can move between these diff. sectors. ok enuf!
peace dude! mike
Comments