Pursuit of Holiness (part 2)
My current ministry setting is within a house church. The idea of pursuing perfection in the midst of community is directly applicable to this church. One of the things that drew me to using John Wesley as a source for this paper was my previous knowledge about the class meetings he began throughout England.
I did not learn much more about the reasoning behind these groups but, in studying the process of becoming perfect, my belief of the necessity of community for the Christian faith to mature and develop got stronger. One of things that Snyder said in his analysis of Wesley that intrigued me was if believers are serious about their quest for holiness they will join together in small groups to experience the type of community necessary for the growth and development of grace in their lives. It is my belief that this is where the recent trend of house church movements can shed some light on how to truly live in Christian community. I personally gave up living on campus so that I could live with others from the group that I am apart of. There is no better feeling than to know that the place you live is set aside as a gathering place for fellow believers.
The reason that the idea of pursuing perfection is, in my opinion, more applicable to my house church setting than to my previous experience of the mega-church comes down to size of group and contact with other members. In the traditional church settings that I grew up in there was no contact with other believers outside of Sunday morning and Youth Group. In college I lived, first in the dormitories, and then in a fraternity with people who saw every aspect of my life. Some of them saw both the Christian me and the non-Christian me. I was always a Christian but I did not always take seriously my call to follow Jesus in pursuit of perfection. It is in a similar vein that my house church is set up. We not only go to church together and seek to know Christ better but we share our lives with one another by living with one another and viewing church as something above and beyond a one hour gathering on Sunday morning.
House churches apply the pursuit of perfection in much the same way that the Wesleyan class meetings did. It is more than a bible study, prayer meeting, or fellowship hour. There is also a commitment to one another to encourage each other in our spiritual walks with God. There is more accountability within the house church than I have ever seen in the traditional church setting.
The downside is that it is hard to get others on board with such intimate commitment to other people. I imagine that in my future ministry setting of working with Muslims I will not have to struggle as hard to get people together in community. I do not completely understand why other cultures are naturally more communal then the American/Western culture. An application of pursuing perfection in this setting that comes to mind is not requiring new converts (from Islam to Christianity) to immediately withdraw from their cultural practices of attending mosque and studying the Qur’an. They should be encouraged to study the Holy Bible alongside the Noble Qur’an. It is not possible, like Pelagius wanted, for new believers to change their evil habits to good habits instantaneously. It is more scriptural to see perfection as a process of the Holy Spirit.
I did not learn much more about the reasoning behind these groups but, in studying the process of becoming perfect, my belief of the necessity of community for the Christian faith to mature and develop got stronger. One of things that Snyder said in his analysis of Wesley that intrigued me was if believers are serious about their quest for holiness they will join together in small groups to experience the type of community necessary for the growth and development of grace in their lives. It is my belief that this is where the recent trend of house church movements can shed some light on how to truly live in Christian community. I personally gave up living on campus so that I could live with others from the group that I am apart of. There is no better feeling than to know that the place you live is set aside as a gathering place for fellow believers.
The reason that the idea of pursuing perfection is, in my opinion, more applicable to my house church setting than to my previous experience of the mega-church comes down to size of group and contact with other members. In the traditional church settings that I grew up in there was no contact with other believers outside of Sunday morning and Youth Group. In college I lived, first in the dormitories, and then in a fraternity with people who saw every aspect of my life. Some of them saw both the Christian me and the non-Christian me. I was always a Christian but I did not always take seriously my call to follow Jesus in pursuit of perfection. It is in a similar vein that my house church is set up. We not only go to church together and seek to know Christ better but we share our lives with one another by living with one another and viewing church as something above and beyond a one hour gathering on Sunday morning.
House churches apply the pursuit of perfection in much the same way that the Wesleyan class meetings did. It is more than a bible study, prayer meeting, or fellowship hour. There is also a commitment to one another to encourage each other in our spiritual walks with God. There is more accountability within the house church than I have ever seen in the traditional church setting.
The downside is that it is hard to get others on board with such intimate commitment to other people. I imagine that in my future ministry setting of working with Muslims I will not have to struggle as hard to get people together in community. I do not completely understand why other cultures are naturally more communal then the American/Western culture. An application of pursuing perfection in this setting that comes to mind is not requiring new converts (from Islam to Christianity) to immediately withdraw from their cultural practices of attending mosque and studying the Qur’an. They should be encouraged to study the Holy Bible alongside the Noble Qur’an. It is not possible, like Pelagius wanted, for new believers to change their evil habits to good habits instantaneously. It is more scriptural to see perfection as a process of the Holy Spirit.
posted by Justin at 7/19/2005 10:15:00 PM
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