EarlyActs
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Envision a ministry family in a 20 year view of your church
I recently attended 4 hours of presentations and talks about the role of book clubs in helping the student generation learn how designed creation by God is more rational than the secular system tells them.
Due to our changing times and increased electronic communication, reading books is at a low. Academic presses must sometimes charge $175 because the size of runs is so low. In its place, a 5 minute video is often the preferred introduction to a subject. So the organization hosting these presentations explained that “book clubs” is broad enough to include watch parties.
I happen to have early experience with L’Abri Fellowship of Dr. Schaeffer and its development. The history of the place by his wife is a great read; sometimes called Acts 29.
From this vantage point, I noticed that the book club—watch party (and even including a meal) is at least an attempt to form a community. But we should see that L’Abri did not see itself as as a one-topic book club. It was a community by being an extended family.
Part of this has to do with the growing ages of the Schaeffer’s children. As the girls attended Swiss high school and college down in Lucerne, friends started coming home to study the Bible or Christian faith. The friends had boyfriends, and this led to invitations by them to teachers or pastors.
Now if enough people are interested in a topic and the initial contact is ‘just right’ (we are very fussy these day), a book club could go. But students, being away from home, are often more attracted to that which is a community and the topics of that group are a side dish to that. Or ‘family’ itself is such a gaping hole that they seek that. By shear scale, a church may not be this to them.
Some students came to L’Abri for Edith’s rather than Francis’ explanations. Some came for Edith’s cooking. But my point is that the experience of a community has a plural draw. It was not a business, and did not specialize in any one of its topics. It did no marketing. It prayed itself into existence by its Monday staff prayer routine. These prayers were for support money, for genuine guests/students, for quality workers and teachers.
This does not mean it was without a regular study plan, but that it would not have struck you as a ‘church.’ Unfortunately, churches have a difficult time coming across as a community, even with the best of artistry in how it meets the public.
I think that it would be good for a church to take inventory of their families, and to think of who might be in line for such a work as their children enter teens. The couple would want to study a number of areas, even of counseling, to prepare. They would also want mentors for continuity, and special-topic speakers to call on.
This would be separate from the church but be supported by it. This ‘outside’ feature is important to students who come from no background at all. L’Abri had resident students work 2-3 hours a day.
If you have further questions and would like to hear more about this kind of work, please contact me at 360-460-9473.
Marcus Sanford
Interplans.net Studio
I recently attended 4 hours of presentations and talks about the role of book clubs in helping the student generation learn how designed creation by God is more rational than the secular system tells them.
Due to our changing times and increased electronic communication, reading books is at a low. Academic presses must sometimes charge $175 because the size of runs is so low. In its place, a 5 minute video is often the preferred introduction to a subject. So the organization hosting these presentations explained that “book clubs” is broad enough to include watch parties.
I happen to have early experience with L’Abri Fellowship of Dr. Schaeffer and its development. The history of the place by his wife is a great read; sometimes called Acts 29.
From this vantage point, I noticed that the book club—watch party (and even including a meal) is at least an attempt to form a community. But we should see that L’Abri did not see itself as as a one-topic book club. It was a community by being an extended family.
Part of this has to do with the growing ages of the Schaeffer’s children. As the girls attended Swiss high school and college down in Lucerne, friends started coming home to study the Bible or Christian faith. The friends had boyfriends, and this led to invitations by them to teachers or pastors.
Now if enough people are interested in a topic and the initial contact is ‘just right’ (we are very fussy these day), a book club could go. But students, being away from home, are often more attracted to that which is a community and the topics of that group are a side dish to that. Or ‘family’ itself is such a gaping hole that they seek that. By shear scale, a church may not be this to them.
Some students came to L’Abri for Edith’s rather than Francis’ explanations. Some came for Edith’s cooking. But my point is that the experience of a community has a plural draw. It was not a business, and did not specialize in any one of its topics. It did no marketing. It prayed itself into existence by its Monday staff prayer routine. These prayers were for support money, for genuine guests/students, for quality workers and teachers.
This does not mean it was without a regular study plan, but that it would not have struck you as a ‘church.’ Unfortunately, churches have a difficult time coming across as a community, even with the best of artistry in how it meets the public.
I think that it would be good for a church to take inventory of their families, and to think of who might be in line for such a work as their children enter teens. The couple would want to study a number of areas, even of counseling, to prepare. They would also want mentors for continuity, and special-topic speakers to call on.
This would be separate from the church but be supported by it. This ‘outside’ feature is important to students who come from no background at all. L’Abri had resident students work 2-3 hours a day.
If you have further questions and would like to hear more about this kind of work, please contact me at 360-460-9473.
Marcus Sanford
Interplans.net Studio
