Well, it's hard to believe it; but as I shared on Sunday with the Family here, this past Sunday was the year anniversary of when we visited and spoke at Woodmont for the first time, praying and seeking whether God was leading us here or not. We all celebrated what God has done among our church family over the last year, taking a page from Rick Atchley's practice of giving a State of the Pulpit address every year. If you're interested in his 18th installment of that practice, here's the link from his message this summer: http://www.rhcc.us/audio.php?pagecount=1&a=1&b=2 (click on the message from July 1).
One final reflection on our own congregation's journey the last year: it's interesting to me how God maintains the balance of inward transformation of his people and external mission for his people in the world, it's both an inside and outside thing to be a Christian. The most mentioned defining moment in our past year was the testimony of Bill Wooten, our courageous brother who has modeled for us and spoken to us the faithfulness of God (see his testimony at: http://www.woodmont.org/page.asp?SID=1&Page=329). This moment was internally transformative for us as a family. But then, God doesn't leave us there: our most mentioned theme for the year and desired place to grow more was to "get off the hill" and serve the poor and needy in the city and around the world. These two themes remind us how wonderfully God develops community inside the family of God and then propels us outward to share his wonder with a hungry world.
May we always hold in balance both the internal transformation and the external focus of our God. Have a wonderful week!
Dean
2 comments:
Good stuff, Dean. I hear you on the internal/external balance. My experience is that the internal is the one more likely to be neglected. One of the critiques of the contemplative (internal) orientation is that it leads to passivity/ quietism/ withdrawal from society a la the Trappist monks. But Thomas Merton argued the opposite -- that the internal journey will by its very nature lead to a heightened sensitivity toward the external world, and produce an urgent need to take action. I'm glad you are a "both/and" kind of guy. We've been living in an "either/or" world for far too long. Blessings, David H
Great thought David: it reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Randy Harris. He tells the story of a guy who's criticizing a monk for not doing anything for the world, but just hiding away in the monastery. The monk's response: "I pray for the world six hours a day, what do you do?" You're right--getting "in" will compel us to get "out" too. Great to hear from you!
-D
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