In the last few posts we talked about being OK with finding yourself outside faith organizations. If you haven’t please go back and read the blog from the beginning – they lay an important foundation. In this post, I want to address how you move forward once you find yourself outside. And I’ll use one question to frame this conversation: are you running from or running towards? That’s the question my wife and I had to answer a few years ago, and my hope is that it provides encouragement for those of you that are on the same journey as us and those we are traveling with in community.
This journey is not one away from God and our Christian faith, rather its a journey to explore our faith and our God outside faith organizations. As I have said before, if you are in a healthy organization – living in community, able to use your gifts to their fullest – you probably won’t find much here for you. However, if you find yourself outside the organizational walls wondering what is next, please read on. I believe you will find the encouragement you are looking for.
In my professional career I have talked to many individuals who are changing jobs or looking for new opportunities. While I might not ask this question every time, in the back of my mind I am always wondering if the person is running from a bad experience, or running to the next opportunity. And I’ve come to learn the wisdom in that question professionally, and, recently, I have learned to value understanding the difference between those two pursuits in regard to my journey outside the faith organizations.
Honestly, I think I’ve been feeling like these organizations do not fit me for many years prior to actually taking the step outside. I interpreted that as me not fitting in the specific organization I was a part of, rather than the structure itself. When we finally stepped away, there was a huge void in our lives – faith organizations had been my whole life, and our life together for the 25 years our marriage. But God, in His grace, did not allow us to jump into another organization to fill the void. It was even tempting to lock on to certain teachers online and start to identify with them. But that’s the danger when we’re running from something – we settle for the first option that feels comfortable and familiar, like it could be the thing for which out heart yearns.
And I have seen that repeated with people who have stepped outside the organizations. They either find another organization to attend – often with the declaration that this new organization has none of the issues that the old organization had – or, they simply try to recreate the experience inside a home, with all the structure and hierarchy that existed inside the previous organization. I understand the allure of both of those approaches. But let me encourage you to take a different approach: understand what you are running towards, what experiences are life-giving and draw you closer in relationship to God before you step into something new.
That is the multi-year journey that my wife and I have been on. We are blessed that we have enough experience in our Christian faith, knowledge of scripture, and mentors further along the path to answer that question. And we wrote it down to keep us on track and to stop us from comprising for something that is less than what God is calling us into. That is what you find in the Simple Community Values. It is a two-part declaration of the desire of our hearts when it comes to living life as the Body of Christ.
The first part – our values – is about who we journey with. Stated another way, is clarifies who is on the same journey as we are. You cannot journey together for very far with people who do not share your values. Our values are at the core of who we are and guide our decisions. Values are not aspirational – we either share them or we do not. Not sharing these values does not make someone a bad person. Far from it – some of the people most precious to us have different values, but we love them, spend time with them, and include them among our closest friends. They are just on a different journey than we are, and that’s OK.
The second part is the principles that govern what we do on the journey. Think of them as guard rails to keep us on track – anything between those principles is fair game and perfectly fine. If you step outside those principles, then you are in danger of violating at least one of the values. You could almost view the principles as the values applied to situations and circumstances. And yes, they are general. There is a natural ebb and flow to community that a rigid set of rules does not accommodate. There has to be flexibility for the people involved and for the Holy Spirit to work and guide.
Let me encourage you to, with those individuals that are significant in your life and walk with God, prayerfully consider what are your core values. Take time to write them down, Pray about them, discuss them. Ask God to give you clarity and conviction about what you are running towards. Do not settle for the familiar or the comfortable – God has called you to something better.
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