Reflections on Christian Community

This past week I re-entered the world of academia. It’s been eight and a half years since I was actually a student in any real capacity but this week I stepped back into that world with both feet by taking the first, of what will be many, courses at Briercrest Seminary towards what will one day become my MA in Theological Studies. In the time between my college graduation and this week I had taken the odd seminary course here and there, and attended the occasional seminar for training and equipping but this was the first time in a long time that there was something significant on the line. If I failed one of those courses in the past I would have been really disappointed in myself and would have questioned if I had worked hard enough to warrant the money spent - but I still would have achieved the goal of learning something. I would have still received equipping for my ministry and vocation and I eventually would have gotten over it. This week however there is much more on the line, with the start of this class the clock is now ticking on a degree that is going to take dedication, hard work and ruthless intentionality to complete without abandoning my full-time position as the pastor of Estevan Alliance Church - and I’m not ashamed to tell you that I find that a little intimidating.

Umm... something like this

Even more than that though was the social anxiety that came from entering into an established community as the ostensible outsider - the one who doesn’t belong. I was concerned that because I was taking a course usually reserved students much farther along in their degree programs that I would end up swimming with sharks and that the intellectual calibre of the discourse would be so far over my head as to render me the embodiment of the village idiot in this community of scholarship. I was worried that my classmates would be happily settled in their own closed-off social groups and that I wouldn’t find anywhere to fit-in or connect relationally with them. It was like the first day of school all over again - but worse, it was the first day of school.

Unsurprisingly, my fears have largely proven unfounded. Classes it turns out will be challenging, but not insurmountable; the calibre of classroom conversation was a stretch (and at times I had to really pay attention and quickly google a few terms on my notebook!) but I was able to engage in the discussion; and I found my classmates and professor to be warm and open relationally and by the end of the week I felt like I was part of the community.

More even than that though I was especially blessed by the conversations I had with many of my classmates about their research topics (this class was Research Methods and Design, a prerequisite for entering into a masters thesis project or ministry related research project - basically major scholarship on a narrowly focused topic) and the things they were learning about God through their scholarship.

I was blessed by my conversations with Phil, who is studying the concept of worship as discipleship, and how what we believe and practice in corporate worship sets the pattern for all that we do throughout the week. My interactions with him caused me to consider and re-affirm the crucial importance of what we do when we gather together as the Body of Christ and how that corporate experience cannot be replaced by other programming - it’s central to what it means to be the church. Phil challenged me to think about what our worship says about God - that is, if someone only knew about God from what they observed at our worship services - what sort of picture of God would they have? As a pastor I have to admit I haven’t given that nearly enough consideration and it’s caused me to come to the Lord in prayer and reflection about that.

I was also blessed by my conversations with Steve. We talked football (soccer - Steve is from the NW of England and I think that he was impressed that I’ve seen a match at the Hawthornes) and ecclesiology and a lot about what biblical eldership looks like. I was so encouraging to hear that in his studies on the topic that he has come to many of the same conclusions about the role of biblical elders that our board has been wrestling through over the past couple of years. It was encouraging and at the same time challenging, because it reaffirmed that the role of elder in the church is not an easy calling. As Steve put it, if people really knew the cost and the call of eldership there would be a lot fewer people willing to let their name stand for nomination. 

I was excited to learn about Kelsey’s research project that is focusing on a biblical theology of suffering through the lens of famous figures who persevered in their suffering and never got better. How we too often view suffering only as a trial to be overcome, ignoring the wealth of biblical literature that points to a God who enters into suffering and uses it for his glory and purposes. We tend to over look the people who allowed their suffering to be a crucible that refined them for a specific purpose and whom God used to accomplish amazing things - the prime example being a man like William Wilberforce, who despite is constant physical infirmity and weakness fought tirelessly to alleviate suffering of a more dehumanizing kind affecting millions of people around the world through the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. We often forget when thinking about Wilberforce that he suffered most of his adult life and then died three days after witnessing his motion pass parliament. It’s an amazing thing to consider.

These stories an more are representative of my experience this week in the community of Briercrest Seminary - but more than that they are illustrative of how life in the community of the church is supposed to be. Perhaps it’s been a long time (if ever) that you’ve sat down and talked about a masters-level research project on spiritual issues with someone - but every week you sit down next to someone in church who has been learning things about God. Every week you bump into people to whom God has been revealing himself in new and exciting ways. Every week we talk to people who have had “aha” and “eureka” moments in God’s Holy Word - and we need to foster the type of community where those things are shared with one another. My professor this week spoke on a number of occasions about the privilege of being involved in a Christian community of scholarship - where ideas are freely exchanged and feedback is solicited and extended because we’re all working for the glory of God and the edification of his Church. He spoke of this of course in contrast to secular scholarship where ideas, theories and thesis are held close to the chest for fear that someone else might run with your ideas and get the grant money that you so desperately need to perform your research - but I have to wonder if in the church we don’t sometimes think more like these secular scholars than their Christian equivalents? God has placed us in a community where we can share, sharpen and celebrate our ideas, observations and experiences with one another - why are we so often reticent to do so?

If I learned nothing else this week (and I learned a lot!), it was the value of talking about what we’re learning with each other. Not so that we can sound smart, or to make people think that we’ve got it all figured out (I didn’t meet anyone this week that did) but so that we can glorify God, build each other up and sharpen our understanding of what God is teaching us. Christian community is a blessing, and I for one don’t want to waste it.

These are my reflections on my first week at school, now to go and do some more homework!

-Chris