August 24, 2008
Disclaimer
I do realize that my previous post was a little long. After I was two pages in on word and my wife saw it and inquired what it was, and after I told her it was a blog post she said it was way to long. I did however want to share some of my experiences and thoughts for the summer, and as many of them arose out of our time together in small group I wanted to share with the people who have helped me to shape these thoughts. I am still thinking through many of the ideas that I touched on and hope to explore some of them further on the blog, but for now this is a good start. I also hope that this will be an opportunity for me to receive feedback on my thoughts and ideas. Things may seem clear in my own head, but it is only through the interaction of the community that they can be shaped and refined. This goes to say, your comments are welcomed and desired.
Thoughts on Christian Community
This summer through a variety of experiences in my life combined with a good selection of reading from both the scripture and a selection of other authors God has been teaching me about his church and the nature of Christian community. I don’t often take the time to sit down and write blogs about such subjects, but I figured this would help me to reduce some of my thoughts to writing and let me share some of the things that I am learning.
This summer our life group at Meadowbrook began with the question: “What should the church be that it isn’t?” With this question we launched into a discussion that we hoped would help us to live out God’s call on our lives to be his body the church. Our desire was not to be critical of the church but to see how we could live faithfully in obedience to Christ. So far this has been a wonderful experience that has led me farther into reflection of the nature of God’s community and its foundations. I am excited to see where our discussion and actions go from here and I have developed a sense of expectancy for God to do mighty things within our group and our church at large. I’m not sure what this might be, all I know is that God is moving and is about to do things that I pray surpass any expectations that we could formulate.
Going back to the original question that we posed at the beginning of the summer, I began to wonder if we were asking the right question. This led me to see if there were any other ways that we might address the issue of the church, other ways to probe into its nature, its call, its mission in this world. Then I came to Cottonwood.
As part of my seminary program I did an internship at Cottonwood Baptist Church in Dublin this summer. Cottonwood is a unique church that has experienced the movement of God in the last ten years in significant ways. Although, it is not perfect, it is doing many things that are healthy for the church and faithful to Christ’s call to his body.
In a conversation that I had with Cottonwood’s pastor, Mike Fritscher, he began to tell me some of the history of their church and how God brought them to the place they are at now. Mike said that he spent time during the early years of his pastorate preaching on the glory of God and exploring this concept as a church. He talks about how we exist to give glory to God and this important aspect of faith has become central to the congregation’s life. When Mike invited Dr. Mike Stroope to come speak to the church about the possibilities of participating in mission, Dr. Stroope did not begin by talking about the nations, nor about the church, but about the glory of God. This he said was the foundation for the church’s life and work in the world, and it is this that is the impetus for its mission among the nations.
This theme is too big to go into here, and I still need additional reflection on its depth and implications, but in relation to the current discussion it began to make me think about how we see the church, and what we found it upon. It made me look back to the question we had in life group and the answers that we gave. I started to think that to give better answers to the question we should go back further to look at the foundations of the church. Without a proper understanding of the basis for the Christian community we cannot fully understand what it should be or be doing in this world. So I began to look back at some of our answers that we posed in our initial small group discussion and see if there was something behind them.
Two of the main themes that arose out of that discussion were the need for community and intimacy. These two are strongly related to one another as intimacy is a necessary part of developing community. As we began to talk about the need for intimacy Jacob prefaced our discussion saying that the Bible does not explicitly tell us that we need to be intimate with one another. The question of my mind then was what is our basis for the need for intimacy among brothers and sisters and Christ?
The first thing that came to mind was the Trinity. What better picture of intimacy do we have than in the relationships that exist within God himself? In the person of God we see Father, Son, and Spirit relating to one another in such intimacy that they exist as one. In the Trinity these three persons, although unique, cannot be separated from one another. God himself, then, becomes the pattern of how we are to relate to one another. God’s intimacy within the relationships that make up the Trinity become our basis for intimacy within the body of Christ.
Augustine, who was so influential in the shaping of theology and wrote the defining work on the doctrine of the Trinity for Western theology, described the Holy Spirit as the love that existed between the Father and the Son. The Spirit was said to come from both Father and Son and was that which binds them together. This same Spirit is the Spirit that Jesus sends at Pentecost, the Spirit that establishes and sustains the church, the Spirit that dwells in the lives of believers. In this way, believers and the church are drawn up into the Trinitarian life of God. The church exists not only on the basis of the salvific work of Christ, but also within God himself as we participate in his Holy Spirit. The church therefore finds its beginning and end, its foundation and goal within the God it serves. This and only this may serve as a sure foundation for the church, for God alone is eternal, enduring, and unwavering.
As God himself is the foundation for the church, the gathering of his people, it is to him that we must look for the example we are to follow. God himself shows us what it means to live in community. God shows us what it means to love, and how to love. God shows us these things in his relationship with his people Israel, and most clearly in his Son Jesus Christ. God is not hidden, but has revealed himself to us in Jesus. Because of this we may look to Jesus and see what God is like. It is because God has been revealed in Christ that we know how to reflect God.
Not only does God provide the basis for community as Trinity, but also provides the goal of community. Christian community, the church, exists not for its own end but in order to glorify God. The goal of the church is not to build up the church for the sake of the church, but rather is to become a community that glorifies God within a world of people who have fallen out of relationship with our creator.
Community for community’s sake is a dangerous foundation for the church. First off it is a selfish orientation that makes the church out to be the goal. If we develop a view of the church that makes community out to be the end then the church becomes about the church and maintaining the church becomes the primary goal. This is a blatant contradiction of the gospel as lived out in Jesus Christ. Jesus demonstrated a self-giving love and even though he had every claim to all the glory of God he claimed none of it, seeking instead to glorify the Father and love others above himself.
Reading through the gospel of John quickly reveals this dynamic of the Trinitarian relationship. Jesus says his task is to honor and glorify the Father. He keeps turning the focus back to the Father saying it is the Father’s will he has come to do. In turn Jesus says that the Father glorifies the Son. Look at just a selection of the words of Jesus: “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. (Jn 8:54), “If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.” (Jn 13:32), “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” (Jn 17:1). Then Jesus says that when the Spirit comes he will bring glory to the Son (Jn 16:14) We see that even within the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit act selflessly seeking to love and glorify one another.
The church is called to join in this activity of the Trinitarian life. The church is to bring glory to God and not point to itself. In following the lead of our Savior, the church takes on an orientation toward God. God is to be both the center and the aim of the church, the foundation and the goal. God, in Christ, stands at either end, the beginning and origin of this called out community as well as its purpose and that which pulls it forward.
Too many times the church suffers from the wrong orientation. We make it about us, the people, about our salvation, our holiness, our lives, our healing, our relationships, our families. Or we make it about the church itself, about membership, budgets, buildings, numbers, reputation. While none of these things are bad in themselves, they are not to be the basis of the church, they are not our aim. Jesus said “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” (Mt 6:33). If we make the church about God and bringing glory to him, he will fill in the rest. We will see our lives changed, we will see the church transformed. Our focus, however, must not be on making these things happen but on our purpose to glorify God, for only God is able to truly bring about transformation in our lives and in the church.
As the church becomes more and more about God’s glory it cannot help but take up Christ’s mission in the world. The call to glorify God includes glorifying him among all nations. This summer at Cottonwood we read through the Psalms together as a body. The call to glorify God among the nations is one that is echoed again and again throughout this book. If we truly desire to see God glorified we cannot help but be driven into the world for the sake of God and his name.
It is important here that we mention that the way in which we glorify God is as important as bringing glory to him. Here I think of Christ and his self-sacrificing love that resulted ultimately in his death upon the cross. Christ brought ultimate glory to God through this love and sacrifice. We as the church are called to the same method of life, so that in embodying the love of Christ in the world we may glorify the God who is the author of that love. A pursuit for God’s glory then will create in us a love for others, a self-giving love that sets others ahead of ourselves.
To sum up at this point, the church should exist as a representative of God’s Trinitarian and loving nature. It should exist primarily for the glory of God, and then out of love for others. In this way the church finds its basis for community not in its own nature but in God and his call to the church that is to be lived out in the world.
This summer our life group at Meadowbrook began with the question: “What should the church be that it isn’t?” With this question we launched into a discussion that we hoped would help us to live out God’s call on our lives to be his body the church. Our desire was not to be critical of the church but to see how we could live faithfully in obedience to Christ. So far this has been a wonderful experience that has led me farther into reflection of the nature of God’s community and its foundations. I am excited to see where our discussion and actions go from here and I have developed a sense of expectancy for God to do mighty things within our group and our church at large. I’m not sure what this might be, all I know is that God is moving and is about to do things that I pray surpass any expectations that we could formulate.
Going back to the original question that we posed at the beginning of the summer, I began to wonder if we were asking the right question. This led me to see if there were any other ways that we might address the issue of the church, other ways to probe into its nature, its call, its mission in this world. Then I came to Cottonwood.
As part of my seminary program I did an internship at Cottonwood Baptist Church in Dublin this summer. Cottonwood is a unique church that has experienced the movement of God in the last ten years in significant ways. Although, it is not perfect, it is doing many things that are healthy for the church and faithful to Christ’s call to his body.
In a conversation that I had with Cottonwood’s pastor, Mike Fritscher, he began to tell me some of the history of their church and how God brought them to the place they are at now. Mike said that he spent time during the early years of his pastorate preaching on the glory of God and exploring this concept as a church. He talks about how we exist to give glory to God and this important aspect of faith has become central to the congregation’s life. When Mike invited Dr. Mike Stroope to come speak to the church about the possibilities of participating in mission, Dr. Stroope did not begin by talking about the nations, nor about the church, but about the glory of God. This he said was the foundation for the church’s life and work in the world, and it is this that is the impetus for its mission among the nations.
This theme is too big to go into here, and I still need additional reflection on its depth and implications, but in relation to the current discussion it began to make me think about how we see the church, and what we found it upon. It made me look back to the question we had in life group and the answers that we gave. I started to think that to give better answers to the question we should go back further to look at the foundations of the church. Without a proper understanding of the basis for the Christian community we cannot fully understand what it should be or be doing in this world. So I began to look back at some of our answers that we posed in our initial small group discussion and see if there was something behind them.
Two of the main themes that arose out of that discussion were the need for community and intimacy. These two are strongly related to one another as intimacy is a necessary part of developing community. As we began to talk about the need for intimacy Jacob prefaced our discussion saying that the Bible does not explicitly tell us that we need to be intimate with one another. The question of my mind then was what is our basis for the need for intimacy among brothers and sisters and Christ?
The first thing that came to mind was the Trinity. What better picture of intimacy do we have than in the relationships that exist within God himself? In the person of God we see Father, Son, and Spirit relating to one another in such intimacy that they exist as one. In the Trinity these three persons, although unique, cannot be separated from one another. God himself, then, becomes the pattern of how we are to relate to one another. God’s intimacy within the relationships that make up the Trinity become our basis for intimacy within the body of Christ.
Augustine, who was so influential in the shaping of theology and wrote the defining work on the doctrine of the Trinity for Western theology, described the Holy Spirit as the love that existed between the Father and the Son. The Spirit was said to come from both Father and Son and was that which binds them together. This same Spirit is the Spirit that Jesus sends at Pentecost, the Spirit that establishes and sustains the church, the Spirit that dwells in the lives of believers. In this way, believers and the church are drawn up into the Trinitarian life of God. The church exists not only on the basis of the salvific work of Christ, but also within God himself as we participate in his Holy Spirit. The church therefore finds its beginning and end, its foundation and goal within the God it serves. This and only this may serve as a sure foundation for the church, for God alone is eternal, enduring, and unwavering.
As God himself is the foundation for the church, the gathering of his people, it is to him that we must look for the example we are to follow. God himself shows us what it means to live in community. God shows us what it means to love, and how to love. God shows us these things in his relationship with his people Israel, and most clearly in his Son Jesus Christ. God is not hidden, but has revealed himself to us in Jesus. Because of this we may look to Jesus and see what God is like. It is because God has been revealed in Christ that we know how to reflect God.
Not only does God provide the basis for community as Trinity, but also provides the goal of community. Christian community, the church, exists not for its own end but in order to glorify God. The goal of the church is not to build up the church for the sake of the church, but rather is to become a community that glorifies God within a world of people who have fallen out of relationship with our creator.
Community for community’s sake is a dangerous foundation for the church. First off it is a selfish orientation that makes the church out to be the goal. If we develop a view of the church that makes community out to be the end then the church becomes about the church and maintaining the church becomes the primary goal. This is a blatant contradiction of the gospel as lived out in Jesus Christ. Jesus demonstrated a self-giving love and even though he had every claim to all the glory of God he claimed none of it, seeking instead to glorify the Father and love others above himself.
Reading through the gospel of John quickly reveals this dynamic of the Trinitarian relationship. Jesus says his task is to honor and glorify the Father. He keeps turning the focus back to the Father saying it is the Father’s will he has come to do. In turn Jesus says that the Father glorifies the Son. Look at just a selection of the words of Jesus: “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. (Jn 8:54), “If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.” (Jn 13:32), “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” (Jn 17:1). Then Jesus says that when the Spirit comes he will bring glory to the Son (Jn 16:14) We see that even within the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit act selflessly seeking to love and glorify one another.
The church is called to join in this activity of the Trinitarian life. The church is to bring glory to God and not point to itself. In following the lead of our Savior, the church takes on an orientation toward God. God is to be both the center and the aim of the church, the foundation and the goal. God, in Christ, stands at either end, the beginning and origin of this called out community as well as its purpose and that which pulls it forward.
Too many times the church suffers from the wrong orientation. We make it about us, the people, about our salvation, our holiness, our lives, our healing, our relationships, our families. Or we make it about the church itself, about membership, budgets, buildings, numbers, reputation. While none of these things are bad in themselves, they are not to be the basis of the church, they are not our aim. Jesus said “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” (Mt 6:33). If we make the church about God and bringing glory to him, he will fill in the rest. We will see our lives changed, we will see the church transformed. Our focus, however, must not be on making these things happen but on our purpose to glorify God, for only God is able to truly bring about transformation in our lives and in the church.
As the church becomes more and more about God’s glory it cannot help but take up Christ’s mission in the world. The call to glorify God includes glorifying him among all nations. This summer at Cottonwood we read through the Psalms together as a body. The call to glorify God among the nations is one that is echoed again and again throughout this book. If we truly desire to see God glorified we cannot help but be driven into the world for the sake of God and his name.
It is important here that we mention that the way in which we glorify God is as important as bringing glory to him. Here I think of Christ and his self-sacrificing love that resulted ultimately in his death upon the cross. Christ brought ultimate glory to God through this love and sacrifice. We as the church are called to the same method of life, so that in embodying the love of Christ in the world we may glorify the God who is the author of that love. A pursuit for God’s glory then will create in us a love for others, a self-giving love that sets others ahead of ourselves.
To sum up at this point, the church should exist as a representative of God’s Trinitarian and loving nature. It should exist primarily for the glory of God, and then out of love for others. In this way the church finds its basis for community not in its own nature but in God and his call to the church that is to be lived out in the world.
August 7, 2008
Baby Boucher #2
We are having a boy!
Joel Matthew Boucher is expected November 20, 2008.
We've known for a couple of weeks, but with the lack of internet access this summer we are slow in relaying news. Sorry! Hopefully things will pick up soon.
Joel Matthew Boucher is expected November 20, 2008.
We've known for a couple of weeks, but with the lack of internet access this summer we are slow in relaying news. Sorry! Hopefully things will pick up soon.
June 11, 2008
May 26, 2008
babies made to order
So apparently you can mail order a new baby (see above picture). No more pregnancies for me! JM may actually get the 17 kids he wants..... or maybe not. :)
May 3, 2008
Well, guess what...
Chloe is going to be a big sister! Just after she turns one year old. Pretty nice birthday present, eh?
I'm due November 20th and I'm 10 weeks along. So there ya go! :)
I'm due November 20th and I'm 10 weeks along. So there ya go! :)
April 2, 2008
Chloe's musical taste
I have listened to several independent singer/songwriter over the past several years. Because of this I never listen to the radio anymore. Anyway today, I got a new CD from one of these indie artists, Dave Barnes. And with this new CD came the making of the album DVD. The great thing about Dave is that he is so funny! If you go to his shows, you usually get a good laugh as well as enjoyable music.
Ok so here's what I'm really getting at. JM isn't too fond of our friend Dave. He likes some of his songs, but overall he is not impressed as he is with most of my musical choices. Well when the CD came in, JM was telling Chloe not to listen to Dave and all this stuff just in fun. So I put the DVD in. Chloe was sitting with her back to the TV and as soon as the music started she started turning her head back to see. So I picked her up and held her. She sat still and memorized by Dave for the whole thing! So it looks like much to JM's disappointment Chloe will follow her mother in musical taste. Score one point for me :)
Here's a video of Chloe laughing for the fam
Ok so here's what I'm really getting at. JM isn't too fond of our friend Dave. He likes some of his songs, but overall he is not impressed as he is with most of my musical choices. Well when the CD came in, JM was telling Chloe not to listen to Dave and all this stuff just in fun. So I put the DVD in. Chloe was sitting with her back to the TV and as soon as the music started she started turning her head back to see. So I picked her up and held her. She sat still and memorized by Dave for the whole thing! So it looks like much to JM's disappointment Chloe will follow her mother in musical taste. Score one point for me :)
Here's a video of Chloe laughing for the fam
March 15, 2008
This is not good...
Chloe is already taken with TV. I took this picture after I had set her up on the couch while I put in DVD. She was locked into the TV for a good 15 minutes. John Mark was feeding her the other day, and he had the TV on. She wouldn't take the bottle because she was watching the TV! So he had to turn off the TV and get her started on the bottle.January 29, 2008
January 25, 2008
So Chloe turned over today.... but JM wasn't in the room to see it! He said she was being fussy so he put her on her stomach and then went into the kitchen to get something. He comes back and she's on her back! I don't think she really meant to turn over, but it happened!
So now we were watching intently for her to do it again. :)
So now we were watching intently for her to do it again. :)
January 23, 2008
January 6, 2008
First Post of '08
After traveling A LOT we are finally home and getting into the rhythm of normal life again. Well sort of... We've never had a baby in our normal life so we're getting into a new normality. I started back to work on Friday. It wasn't too bad. We were probably missing about 1/4 of the students because all the other schools don't start back until tomorrow. And when you only have about 50 students in your school that 12 or so students make a huge difference! So it was kind of a nice laid back day for me to get back into the swing of things, although I did sit down at my desk to a pile of ungraded papers that my sub had left. I'm still trying to decide what to do about those...
On another note, we have started trying to get Chloe on a feeding schedule. I think it's going to take a little bit to adjust to it, because her night sleep is all thrown off now. JM's mom will be here this week so hopefully she can helps with it.
So that's us right now.... and here is a Chloe picture, probably my favorite at the moment :)
December 6, 2007
Our Little Pray-er
The other night Chloe was laying in her comfy little papasan and I looked over to see her with her hands clasped like she was praying. So there you go our little girl is on her way as a prayer warrior.
November 23, 2007
10 Minutes to a Stronger Baby
JM has taken to giving Chloe's arms and legs a workout. This picture was taken while he was stretching out her arms to the music of Scherazarde. We're thinking of making a workout video for babies and selling it.... We should be millionaires by this time next year :)ps. Chloe is wonderful and perfect! We are loving being parents!!
October 31, 2007
37 Weeks
So yea, I'm pretty fat these days.... and this picture was taken this afternoon after I got home from work so I look a little disheveled.
2 and half more weeks until I'm due, I wouldn't mind if it were sooner :)
October 11, 2007
Close Call
My laptop has recently become outrageously infected with viruses and such. We downloaded some anti-virus stuff to help clean it up. Well, it found all kinds of things but my computer was still running really slow. So John Mark decided that we should reload the operating system. He's been going around the apartment trying to locate all the discs for my computer and such. All the programs that you install are wiped off your computer when you do this. He assured me that all my files including my pictures would remain. Well I just wasn't sure, so I asked him to put as many of my pictures on my flash drive as he could before he started the process. I then left for Bible study at church.
I come home, and ask "Did all the pictures fit on the flash drive?" Well it's not a very large memory, so he says no, and that he only saved the wedding and engagement pictures to it. Well guess what.... We have those already on CD! So that was pointless. So anyway, he gets the computer reloaded. Goes to check on the pictures..... And they're GONE!!! I don't know what to say at this point. All I can think is all my pictures are no more. I do have the ones I want to print from about the past 10-12 months online waiting to be printed. That's some comfort.
At this point JM feels terrible, of course. He had assured me they would still be there. So he goes hunting on my computer. And somehow, he finds all the pictures!! They were hidden away. So he's out of the dog house for tonight :)
ps. I'm going to add some pictures to flickr from the baby shower this weekend in just a little bit.
I come home, and ask "Did all the pictures fit on the flash drive?" Well it's not a very large memory, so he says no, and that he only saved the wedding and engagement pictures to it. Well guess what.... We have those already on CD! So that was pointless. So anyway, he gets the computer reloaded. Goes to check on the pictures..... And they're GONE!!! I don't know what to say at this point. All I can think is all my pictures are no more. I do have the ones I want to print from about the past 10-12 months online waiting to be printed. That's some comfort.
At this point JM feels terrible, of course. He had assured me they would still be there. So he goes hunting on my computer. And somehow, he finds all the pictures!! They were hidden away. So he's out of the dog house for tonight :)
ps. I'm going to add some pictures to flickr from the baby shower this weekend in just a little bit.
September 18, 2007
Week 33
I'm sorry to say, but I don't like being pregnant right now. I have had a really easy pregnancy so far, but the past two days have been rough! I think Chloe grew like 3 inches and 2 pounds in one night or something, because I woke up Monday morning in pain! The muscles in my lower abdomen are stretched to the max and so it is hard and painful when I change positions especially going from sitting to standing or lying down to standing. Plus all the weight is pulling downward, I think she has either moved into the head down position or getting there, and my belling button feels like it could just pull apart :) So there ya go, being pregnant is no fun :)
Sorry for the downer post. I just wanted to vent. Week 33 isn't one I will look back on fondly....
Sorry for the downer post. I just wanted to vent. Week 33 isn't one I will look back on fondly....
September 3, 2007
Video
For those interested, who have been keeping up with the blog, thanks to Blogger's new capabilities, I have uploaded the video from the barber shop of the barber doing the "black thread of death" to Michael. Check it out on the original post.
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