Well I feel as though it is about that time to write another blog entry. This may well be the last blog entry I write while in Idaho. Strange, isn't it? A journey that physically started just a few months ago is now coming to a close, however the effects of it will last a life time.
Questions still abound, as to why exactly did I feel called to this church in Idaho? Did it have to be Idaho, or could it have been somewhere in Ohio? What exactly is God doing through this? How is God moving in my life? What will I take from this experience within this next year, the next five, ten, twenty, rest of my life? What did I learn about ministry, the Church (Mennonite and church in general), myself? What kind of impact did I have on First Mennonite Aberdeen? Will I see these people again?
I still struggle with what is church supposed to look like. Are we doing church right? This whole one hour thing on Sunday morning where it is just a pastor talking about the Bible. Important? Yes. But by no means is that what the church is, or what church should be, yet this is what we see church as. How do we get out of this mold? Church is community, relationships between people, where we share our lives, share our struggles, our hurts, where we break bread together. However, this is not what people see from the outside. They see people going to church one hour a week where they are taught a certain doctrine and where there isn't really genuine sharing because most people put up a facade that things are perfect in their lives or at least going well. It's no wonder that churches are dying all around our country. We as a church are so far removed from what the early church looked like and did? How do we get back to those roots?
One quick thing as I try to think this out and leave it to others to ponder. There is something that I just don't get right now. Everyone talks about how much they loved their college life, not the schooling but the social aspect. But what makes the social aspect so special? People. Community. In college you live with your best friend, or right down the hall from them or at worst across campus. You eat with seven of your closest friends at meals, you go to class together, practices together, you do fun activities together. There is such strong community, and that is what people love about college. So why do we totally abandon this when we leave college? Why is it basically unheard of for college friends to go live together after college either in community housing or in the same apartment complex? Why do are the ideas and goals of making money and getting ahead in the world and doing what the culture does so important? Why aren't the people we love and care about who we surround ourselves with? Why don't we try to live in community with them and continue on what we love about college? Especially if community is such an important part of church (at least in my opinion). Why must we be so individualistic and only think of ourselves? What happened to loving our neighbor as ourselves? How are we being the church, and followers of Christ if we just do what everyone else does?
For a person who knows that they want to a pastor in church there are so many uncertainties in life. Supposedly we are supposed to know what we want to do with our lives when we graduate from college, and I know what I want to do, but there is still so much more. Life is so much more than a job, and a job is really not what makes a person even though that is what culture tells us is important. We are who we are no matter what we do. Yes it is a part of us, but what is truly important is how we interact with our friends, family, the stranger in the coffee shop. That is who we are.
I'm sorry if this post is either way off the wall or not something you resonate with? But this is one of the few things I am thinking about. I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense either, it's late and I got to rambling. But what if my calling is to be a pastor of a church but not the type of church that we think about when we hear the word church? Or if it is to those churches to stretch, challenge and push them. What if the church as we know it dies off? What then? Christ called us to a radical walk with him, not something that was easy or how mainstream culture does things. Yet we are so happy to just get comfortable and settle in and do what the people around us do. There has got to be something more to being a Christian, to being the church to being the body of Christ. May we find what those things are, and live fully into what Jesus is calling us to.
Again, I am sorry. In other news my family will be leaving in about 12ish hours to come pick me up and see what Aberdeen, Idaho is like. I am excited. I am also excited for the road trip back as well. Please pray for safety in our travels and that we can all stand being in a car that much. I look forward to coming home and seeing all my family in Holmes County (those by blood and love) as well as my family in Bluffton and all the people who make that place home as well. Thank you all for your support.
Shalom,
Matt
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