Waiting in Expectation for Christ’s Coming in our Midst [Living Into Community #1]

Last updated on: December 4, 2012 at 5:50 pm by Christopher Smith

Waiting in Expectation for Christ’s Coming in our Midst [Living Into Community #1] 2012-12-04T17:50:56-05:00 Christopher Smith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This is the first in an Advent series of eight posts that will wind their way through Christine Pohl’s new book Living into Community: Cultivating Practices that Sustain Us (Eerdmans 2012 Buy now: Amazon // Kindle ). This book was chosen as The Englewood Review’s Book of the Year for 2012, and as I hope will become abundantly clear over the Advent season, it fits very well with what John and I have been describing as Slow Church.

[ Read an Excerpt of LIVING INTO COMMUNITY ]

Advent traditionally is a season of preparation and waiting for the coming of Christ, but in preparing for the coming of Christ, we are also waiting expectantly for the maturing of Christ’s Body, the Church, into the fullness of its stature (Eph 4:13). These themes of waiting for the maturity of Christ’s Body and at the same time, as members of church communities that embody Christ in a particular place, our calling is to be engaged in the long, slow process of preparing for this maturing. In her introduction to the book, Pohl notes that “Human beings were made for living in community, and it is in community that we flourish and become most fully human” (3). But at the same time, “Growing into the likeness of Christ and into the church as it’s supposed to be cannot be separated from the messiness and disappointments that are part of human relationships.” Our situation is thus that we have been called into community and we yearn for life together, and yet our church communities are immature.

Pohl uncovers the roots of our immaturity: “While we might want community, it is often community on its own terms, with easy entrances and exits, lots of choice and support, and minimal responsibilities. Mixed together, this is not a promising recipe for strong or lasting communities. … Our lives are knit together not so much by intense feeling as by shared history, tasks, commitments, stories and sacrifices” (4). It is therefore practices that hold our church communities together over time and through which we experience the healing and transforming grace of God. Pohl chooses to focus in Living into Community on a basic set of only four practices that are “central to community life and to God’s character” and undergird our life together: gratitude, promise-keeping, truth-telling and hospitality. Just as discipline and practice are essential to our maturing as individual — playing a musical instrument or a sport, for instance — so they also are important to our maturing as church communities.

Although the season often gets highjacked by the prevailing consumerism, Advent should be a season of slowing down ad reflecting. I invite you over the next few weeks to journey with me in reflecting on the health and maturity of our own church communities. As we await the Christmas celebration of Christ’s coming, let us consider together how well we are preparing for the coming of Christ in the midst of our church communities. Are we growing into practices that will help us mature together into his fullness? And if not, what are the impediments that are stunting our growth.

Previous Post

November 20, 2012

When Gratitude Gets Complicated [Gratitude Series - #2]

Next Post

December 12, 2012 Waiting in Expectation for the Transformation of the World [Living Into Community #2]

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abundance Advent Books Community Conferences Conversations Ecology Economics Emergent Eucharist Family Food Gratitude Happenings Health history Hospitality Justice Lent Meditations Neighborhoods News Peace Place Poetry Politics Sabbath Scripture Stories Technology The Table Theology Uncategorized What is Slow Church? Youth

Select a Month January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 March 2016 June 2015 March 2015 February 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Melchizedek?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A priest and king An angel A prophet A Roman official