A theme that seems to be developing in various aspects of my life, but especially within the commmunity house (now called The Harbour, by the way) has been the idea of the need for unity among Christians, despite our differing opinions and backgrounds.
Within this house and associated boyfriends, at least six different denominations are represented - Reformed, Baptist, Pentacostal, Mennonite and United.
Some of us have a more conservative way of viewing life and faith and how it should be lived out and some of us are more liberal. Yet all of us are committed to our one God, this community and to learning how to coexist and love each other.
I believe then, that a valuable mission this house could undertake would be in learning to listen to not just each other's voices, but the voices of various congregations within the city of Waterloo.
Online, there are forty-four churches that advertise on the City of Waterloo's website: http://www.city.waterloo.on.ca/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabID=260.
I think it would be an interesting experiment with Christian unity and mutual understanding to visit each of these churches on a typical Sunday morning, e-mailing each of them ahead of time explaining who we are and what we are doing, attaching a short survey asking their perspectives on what it means to follow Jesus, who in their congregation does an exemplary job of doing this and what about their denomination or congregation is most misunderstood by the Church of general public. Finally, we will invite each pastor and his/her family to come over to our house for lunch after the service.
The goal would be to gain a more thorough understanding of the Christian spectrum within Waterloo, gaining their perspectives on us and what we do as a house and to promote the importance of ecumenism in Waterloo.
I hypothesize that there is a wealth of untapped potential in various sincere Christian voices listening to and understanding each other, even if those voices may contradict at times.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
I'm Bored.
A few times a week it is only me and my boss in the kitchen for roughly half an hour. A couple months ago I attempted to tell him about the community house but really butchered it and basically made it sound like I was part of a cult. I've been attempting to redeem that image of us for him ever since.
When he asks me what I did on the weekend, I occasionally have an opportunity to tell him about SHOW, an apartment complex built by local churches that houses formerly homeless people. I was there last week as well, so I told him about my experience that week.
That week at SHOW one of the residents made a big, awkward, threatening kerfuffle as we all sat around in the common room eating cookies and playing cards with the residents. It lasted a while, him walking around shouting about how he didn't like Christians, getting close to people's faces and insulting them. I was terrified. Eventually one of the workers at SHOW who was a woman came in and calmed him done. I want to be like her when I grow up.
So I had the opportunity to explain this situation to my boss. He said it was a shame that stuff like that happens because it might prevent people from going back. I explained to him that I think everyone gets a high from something. Sometimes its alcohol, sports, drugs, the outdoors, dangerous sports... people seem to like the thrill of not quite knowing what will happen. I explained to him that these kinds of occurrences are how I get my high.
And last night we talked about war and peace in Forum. And it was brought up about how God's goal is not our protection. I firmly believe that its a Christian's responsibility to let go of their need to be protected so that they can love everyone, and not just those its comfortable to love.
But I feel like except for the once in a while encounters at SHOW, my life is sorely lacking that kind of adventure.
I'm super bored and I want to live a more terrifying life. I want it to infiltrate the routine of my life.
I don't want to live a safe and protected life!
And eventually I don't want it to be quite so motivated by the high I get from being in scary circumstances of service... and more motivated by actual love, but I'm not there yet.
But in the meantime, I'm bored.
When he asks me what I did on the weekend, I occasionally have an opportunity to tell him about SHOW, an apartment complex built by local churches that houses formerly homeless people. I was there last week as well, so I told him about my experience that week.
That week at SHOW one of the residents made a big, awkward, threatening kerfuffle as we all sat around in the common room eating cookies and playing cards with the residents. It lasted a while, him walking around shouting about how he didn't like Christians, getting close to people's faces and insulting them. I was terrified. Eventually one of the workers at SHOW who was a woman came in and calmed him done. I want to be like her when I grow up.
So I had the opportunity to explain this situation to my boss. He said it was a shame that stuff like that happens because it might prevent people from going back. I explained to him that I think everyone gets a high from something. Sometimes its alcohol, sports, drugs, the outdoors, dangerous sports... people seem to like the thrill of not quite knowing what will happen. I explained to him that these kinds of occurrences are how I get my high.
And last night we talked about war and peace in Forum. And it was brought up about how God's goal is not our protection. I firmly believe that its a Christian's responsibility to let go of their need to be protected so that they can love everyone, and not just those its comfortable to love.
But I feel like except for the once in a while encounters at SHOW, my life is sorely lacking that kind of adventure.
I'm super bored and I want to live a more terrifying life. I want it to infiltrate the routine of my life.
I don't want to live a safe and protected life!
And eventually I don't want it to be quite so motivated by the high I get from being in scary circumstances of service... and more motivated by actual love, but I'm not there yet.
But in the meantime, I'm bored.
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