Communionity via Prayer

The Lord's Supper was not just about sharing bread and a cup of wine. It was also about sharing in the suffering of Jesus.

Three different times during their journey to Jerusalem from Galilee, Jesus told his disciples that he would be handed over to the temple authorities, tried unjustly, and crucified as a criminal. The warnings didn't seem to work, as the disciples one by one betrayed, denied, or fled their Lord, adding to his suffering instead of sharing in it with him. And this is why Jesus prayed for his disciples.

Prayer is a powerful way to share in the sufferings of others.

If Communionity is about unity with one another and communion with Christ, prayer is a crucial task for that relationship. In prayer we share with God the suffering of those near and dear to us. Prayer is what we can do when we can't end the suffering, when we can't stand the suffering, when we can't bear it any longer. No one suffered more on earth than Jesus, and so we can go to him in prayer, knowing that he will understand and empathize.

But more than that, we believe that Jesus can help. That's what community is all about - neighbors being there for one another in a time of need. That's the heart of the story of the Good Samaritan, the parable Jesus used to demonstrate what love of neighbor looks like. The one who had mercy was the good neighbor.

And so prayer can be a sacred work of mercy and neighborliness to those you see in suffering.

Jesus prayed for his disciples, that they might not give in to temptation. He prayed that they would be rescued from their disloyalty. He prayed not only for the men and women who had followed him up to Jerusalem, but for all the disciples who would ever live and breathe his name as Lord. Jesus has already prayed for you.

He has also taught us how to pray - to our Father in Heaven, for one another, and for those we see in need. And we have the words of his prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane where he wrestled to accept his coming crucifixion and interceded on behalf of his followers of all ages.

Another kind of prayer we think of during the Lord's Supper is where you intercede to God on behalf of someone in your life. Intercessory prayer is lifting up a need in a life up to the Lord. Jesus did this for his disciples, he did it for us following the dinner. And it ought to be something we do as part of our Communion - union with others in their need, with Christ who is present and able to help.

Intercessory Prayer is a spiritual practice that forms our soul, guides our hands, hearts. Intercessory prayer invites us into God’s care and concern for us, our families and friends, and the entire world. No concern is too trivial for God to receive with loving attention. However, intercession is not a means of manipulating God into doing our will. Rather, it is a way we become aware of God’s prayer for a person and join in that intercession.

Spiritual Formation thru Intercessory Prayer
* To turn my concerns and worries into prayer; to enter God’s heart for the world and then pray from there
* Get together with friends to pray for those in need
* Prayer walk through your neighborhood
* Pray for people caught up in the crises of the world
* Pray for people and situations as they come to mind
* Respond to Jesus’ invitation to pray with him for others
* Turn anxieties and sorrows into a dialogue of prayer
* Develop a rhythm for turning to God with requests
* Gain discernment on how the Spirit leads you to pray

Sometimes we don't know what to say to God about the suffering we see within others and all around us. We are wordless amidst the sorrow and pain, yet we believe that the Spirit of God within us intercedes on our behalf to our Father in Heaven. More than us, God wants to bring an end to all suffering - the one who loves us with a heart bigger than the universe.

Through Jesus, God has suffered with humanity, at the hands of humanity, for the hope of humanity. So when we cry out to God with pained whispers, the same Spirit that was within Jesus is there with us, to hear us, be with us, and point us forward in hope. When we go to God on behalf of someone we care about, it's not so much the words on our lips that matter as the faith in our hearts.

That we go to God is significant. That we surrender the pain and hopes we have for others to the Lord is more important than demanding resolution. Intercessory prayer is just as much about going to God with the suffering as it is bearing it with your friend. Communionity is sharing suffering with one another in communion with Christ. Pray for those you share the bread and cup with. Be with them, and share in their suffering.

And when we can't bear it anymore, we let Jesus help us bear the sufferings of one another. Intercessory prayer aren't a substitute for being present with someone else. It's what you do before, during, and after you are moved by the suffering of someone.

Intercessory prayer is marked by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who bore our sins on the cross, who loved us to the end, who forgave us our betrayal and denials, and who was raised from the dead in order to lead us forward towards the reconciliation of all things.

We believe that in Christ all things will be worked out for the good of those that love God. And that ends up being a lot of what intercessory prayer becomes - looking to be used by God to help every ounce of suffering to be redeemed for our joy and God's glory. 

In the bread we remember the body of Jesus that was present with humanity amidst it's suffering, and we remember the blood poured out for a new covenant for the world with God - God is now with us, no matter what we do to him.

He is Jesus, who has come to save us. He is Immanuel, God with us.
Pray in confidence.

Communionity via Confession

The Lord's Supper was the last supper Jesus would have with his disciples before his crucifixion and resurrection. It's a meal where he will be betrayed by Judas while he is explaining how his sacrificial death will atone for the sins of the world.

It's a Passover meal where he embraces the role of the lamb that will be slain, the blood of his body smeared over the doorposts of the universe to shield us from death and open the way forward to life with God.

It's a Last Supper where he takes the bread and reminds them to share it generously, like he used to do.

It's a Last Supper where he takes the cup of wine and reminds Judas, Peter, and the other disciples how he has poured out his life for the forgiveness of sins - for any who will drink of it and join him in his kingdom of peace. That's what Communion is all about.

Communion with Jesus is with a Christ who came to the common man and common woman in the community - to be united with them, to reconcile them to God and one another, to redeem them from evil and rescue them from their pit.

Communion with Jesus ought to build unity with our community - for that is where Christ is at - in the community building unity with him and one another. Either the church can be part of this kingdom work of God, or it can be left behind.

The spiritual practice of confession and self-examination has long been a part of the church's understanding of communion. When Christians partake of the Lord's Supper, there is usually a moment of reflection and repentance for sin.

But it's mostly just a moment of penitence.

Confession, however, takes practice, it takes work, and it requires time to let the Spirit speak and convict and heal. If confession is to be a source of unity for the community, if self-examination is to further communionity, it will need more practice.

What if there was a way for a church to practice Communion so that the time spent in confession to the Lord and to one another taught us how to confess sin during the week as well? What if the Sanctuary became a safe place for self-examination - a practice that we could then be taught to do in the world where we eat and drink and work and live?

When we remember Jesus and what he did in the Last Supper - and through it - it's a memory that should shape not just a moment, but many moments throughout the week of our life.

When we eat and drink in memory of Jesus, we are eating bread by which we remember how he shared his life and bread with the hungry and the lost. We are sharing the cup by which we remember how Jesus poured out his life for many, for the forgiveness of sins.

When we eat that bread, we remember how much he has shared with us - and it prompts us to share with those at the table with us and those in the community not yet at our table. When we drink from the cup we remember how much we have been forgiven, and are prompted to forgive those who have sinned against us, to be reconciled with those we have wronged, and help those in our community who want to learn how to forgive and be forgiven.

What is the spiritual practice of confession and self-examination?

• To surrender my weaknesses and faults to the forgiving love of Christ and intentionally desire and embrace practices that lead to transformation
• Self-examination is a process whereby the Holy Spirit opens my heart to what is true about me, in love, to seek transformation with Christ for renewal and change.
• Admitting to God my propensity to rationalize, deny, blame and self-obsess
• Examine the “sin-network” in your life as evidenced in presumptuous sins, besetting weaknesses, self-centered habits and broken relationships
• Replace sinful habits with healthy ones, Seek God’s grace to change
• Confess sins by examining your life in light of the 7 Deadly Sins, 10 Commandments, Beatitudes, Fruit of the Spirit
• Keep company with Jesus as you respond to conviction of sins and confess them to God
• Have compassion towards others in their faults
• Think of yourself with sober judgment, aware of your blindspots

Other practices include:

• Ask some of your close friends or trusted family members to help you see your blind spots. Ask them questions like: "What do I do that hurts you?" or "How could I better love you?" or "What is it like to be with me?" or "Do I show interest in other or talk mostly about myself?" Let their answers guide you in a time of confession.
• Imagine the kind of person you would like to be in your old age. Look at your life now and consider what would need to change in order to prepare now for what you would like to be then.
• How in touch do you feel with our own sin? 
• Begin to notice your strong emotions.
• Use Psalm 51 as a guide to confess sins you are convicted of. 
• Seek out a pastor to pray with you and guide you forward in accepting forgiveness and God's love.

Jesus was able to redeem both Peter and Judas, though only one of them was willing to say "I'm sorry" and to hear the words, "I forgive you."

Which one are you?


For more guidance on spiritual practices, see the very helpful resource by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook

Communionity via Control of the Tongue

Communion goes by many names. A common one is the Lord's Supper, also known as the Last Supper. This famous meal is introduced by the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Corinth this way: "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed..." [1Corinthians 11v23]. Whatever our thoughts are about this dinner, it ought to include a remembrance of the Jesus who ate and drank with men who would betray him, deny him, and abandon him.

Judas is the most famous of the betrayers, with Peter a close second in fame for his denial. The others ran away in the garden when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus. With their words, each man had pledged allegiance to Jesus, confessed him as their Lord, the Son of God, the long awaited deliverer and king who would rescue them from their oppressors, end the exile, and make everything right. And with their words, one at a time, they both promised their faithfulness and then voiced their disloyalty.

Judas discussed with the religious authorities how he might turn Jesus over to them. Peter vowed that he would never deny Jesus. The other apostles all swore they would stay with him to the end.

Jesus knew their hearts. He heard their words. He could see what they would do when the moment of truth would come. And he was still willing to break bread with them and share the cup.

The Lord's Supper was the last supper Jesus would share with any of his disciples before his crucifixion. It would be the last Passover meal he would share with anyone until he returns at the end of the age to make everything all-right and establish his kingdom.

It was the last of many meals he shared with tax-collectors and sinners, men and women from every strata of humanity, people near and far from God.

It was the last meal he would share with them before he died for them, before he let himself be crucified for their sins - for their betrayals, denials and disloyalty.

The Lord's Supper reminds us of the great lengths God will go to be with sinners. Jesus words remind us of his deep love for men and women of the world. Every word that Jesus spoke pointed people to God, to the truth, to love, to peace, to grace, to unity and reconciliation.

What do our words point to? If we are people who have participated in the Lord's Supper, if we have heard and received the words of Jesus, what kind of words pour out of our mouth into others? In what ways is the community better because of the words we speak? Do our words build up like Jesus? Or tear down like Judas?

Spiritual formation through control of the tongue is central to our communionity. Words matter. Letting the Spirit of Jesus re-form our heart and therefore our tongue are key to our building unity in our community. Communionity is when our practice of communion contributes to unity in Christ in our community. What could we strengthen communionity through control of the tongue look like ?

• To turn the destructive way I use words into authentic, loving and healing speech
• Control of the tongue involves an intentional awareness and governance of words as well as tone of voice in all communications
• Speaking truth in love
• Not speaking out of anger or irritability
• Using words to encourage and speak life into others
• Not yelling, cursing, belittling, gossiping, slandering
• Addressing critical nature as revealed in your critical tongue
• Notice how your words affect others
• Apologize and forgive with words
• Mean what you say and say what you mean
• Let go of verbal defense mechanisms
• Reveal Christ through the control of your tongue

Pay attention to what God's Spirit is prompting you to consider doing different. In what area with your words is he convicting you? Here are some other spiritual formation practices you may want to try:

• Work at saying "Thank you" and "You are welcome" as much as you can. 
• Don't hesitate to say "I am sorry" and "I forgive you." 
• Avoid words like "You always" or "You never" when you are arguing. 
• Remember it's better to say nothing at all if you have nothing nice to say. 
• Take three days to reply to a complicated, emotionally-charged situation. 
• Seek first to understand, don't focus so much on being understood. 
• It takes 10 genuinely positive words to undo the damage of 1 negative word. 

As people of God in communionity with each other, who eat and drink together who identify with the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, we want to use words that flow out of our memory of him. We can be like Judas when we use our words to take matters into our own hands. We can be like Peter when we over-promise and under-deliver. Or we can be like Jesus, using words that build communionity.

Which one are you?

Communionity via Service

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. That's his rationale for why he ate dinners with sinners. Zacchaeus found salvation after sharing a meal with Jesus. Jesus eats and drinks with us while we are lost in order that we may eat and drink with him when we are found. And often it is while we are eating and drinking together that we find salvation.

Being with Jesus is what changes everything.

What if communion became that place where sinners could be with Jesus? Those that are seeking Jesus, who want to be with Jesus, what if they were welcome at the table? It's an act of service to welcome sinners to the table, to host them and love them and care for them. It's an act of service from Jesus to the world to seek us out and save us. And it's an act of service for the Body of Christ to welcome at the table all who are searching, all who are wandering, all who are lost and want to be found.

The story of Zacchaeus reveals a sinner's heart searching for Jesus. While yet a sinner, Zacchaeus offers hospitality to Jesus. But it is then Jesus who serves salvation to Zacchaeus? The response? Zacchaeus responds to the generous salvation by giving half of his possessions to the poor and then paying back four times the amount to anyone he cheated. Communion with Christ produces service to the community - which connects them with Christ who desires communion with them.

Communionity comes by the service that Jesus and his followers offer up to one another and the community where they live. For those that eat the bread and drink from the cup in remembrance of Jesus, we follow up that remembrance with acts of service to those that Jesus is seeking to save. Acts of service are both the fuel and the fruit of communionity. It connects us with a Christ who is for the community.

The Spirit of Christ is still at work today in our community, seeking to save the lost and commune with them. Communionity comes about when Christians serve their community out of their connection with Christ, resulting in their community connecting with Christ.

We are shaped by the Spirit-prompted acts of service - we are changed by them, just as Jesus uses them to shape and change the community.

What does spiritual formation through service look like for you in your community?

• Reflecting the helping, caring, sharing love of God in the world
• Offering resources, time, treasure, influence and expertise for the care, protections, justice and nurture of others
• Walk the talk
• Collaborate with organizations in your community as a way to care for the widow, orphan and oppressed
• Mentoring
• Helping out your neighbor when a need arises
• Use your skills, interests, experiences, passions to better your church and community
• Inventory ways you are already serving. Surrender it to the Lordship of Christ
• Discover and utilize your spiritual gifts
• Partner with at least one organization through which you can help others based on your passions
• Adopt the attitude of Jesus Christ: he came to serve, not be served

Do you desire to be with Jesus? Let him serve you. And let him serve through you. In communionity with Him and your community. 

We are discovering, not a life of service, but life through service [Reggie McNeal].

Communionity via Simplicity

What are ways that the community where we live can benefit from the communion we have with Christ?

Communion with Jesus has tended to be a one way event - up and down spirituality between me and my savior. But when Jesus ate and drank, it was often with sinners. And in sharing a meal with them, they and their friends found salvation.

What would happen if Jesus-followers broadened their understanding of communion. What if every time a Christian broke bread and drank from a cup became a time of communion - with Jesus as Lord and whoever was there to share it with them, sinner or saint? As radical as this idea may be, it may better then the routine mass consumption of bread and grape juice that is received during some meditative music and prayers for forgiveness.

When Jesus shared communion with his disciples in the Upper Room, it evoked all the dinners he had shared in the years prior. Especially one of the more recent ones with Zacchaeus. In that encounter, by sharing a meal together, salvation comes to Zacchaeus. Jesus declares that this life-change is why he came - to seek and to save the lost. And sharing meals together was a powerful conduit.

And what is communion if it is not sharing in a meal together in the name of Jesus, to remember Jesus. But it's not enough to just remember Jesus - but to obey him and do what he asked us to do - which is to seek and save the lost. One of the ways we do that is by sharing communion with them. Communion can become a way that the lost become found.

Communionity is when communion connects us to our community through Christ. In the Zacchaeus story, we see that this communionity led to salvation for him and joy to his community. Communionity prompted Zacchaeus to give half of his possessions away and to repay four times the amount he cheated anybody. This act of repentance introduced the power of simplicity into his life.

Being freed of his sin, shame and guilt, being free of his past, he began to be free of his possessions, his money, his prestige, his reputation, his greed, his apathy to the poor. Communionity connects you with others in the community through Christ such that you find you need less stuff.

Communionity opens up your heart to the generosity of Christ who is willing to eat with you while you are yet a sinner. The generosity of Jesus, if received, requires us to shove out the windows and doors of our heart all the junk we've accumulated to make room for the love and peace of Christ - for others through us.

Alot of the stuff we've accumulated in our hearts is reflected by what we've accumulated in our homes. As we make more room in our hearts for Christ, we can make more room in our homes for our community - which means clearing out stuff we don't want or need and giving it away to those that might have use of it.

This simplifying of life is a way to become more free to respond to the communion we have with Christ and through him with the community.

Here are some examples of what spiritual formation through simplicity looks like:

• To uncomplicate and untangle my life so I can focus on what really matters
• Cultivate the art of “letting go” to bring freedom and generosity
• Set priorities that flow from loving God above all else
• Downsize on your possessions, give away to those in need
• Eat simple foods, enjoy simple pleasures
• Assess things or activities that keep life complicated or confusing – work to simplify
• Create more space in your schedule for serving others
• Declutter your house
• Limit your time with: TV/Facebook/Games, etc.
• Walk and listen
• Stop giving excuses
• Ask God to help you let go of _________

Consider which of these acts of simplicity the Spirit is prompting you to do as part of your growing participation in communionity - communion with Christ who is in the community. Simplicity flows from your Spirit-charged heart, and it overflows into the people in your life. You become more available to them, more free to be with them and for them.

“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ be ‘No.’” - Jesus

Communionity via Unity

When we practice typical communion on a Sunday morning, it's more rooted in ritualistic tradition and simplistic reflection on the Last Supper. But what if communion could be more central to our worship of Christ and love of neighbor? This is what communionity is seeking to get at. Reshaping our understanding and practice of communion on a Sunday morning so that our hearts and hands are oriented to offering hospitality and building unity as we go about our life in the world with Jesus. Communionity.

For the church today, we need to pay attention to the "communion" stories of Jesus where he is eating and drinking with whoever will invite him, and with whomever he will feed. Communion is about a common union with Christ shared through a meal, through hospitality. A meal is not just a meal to Jesus. For Levi it was a public show of unity with Jesus. And it sparked grumbling from the religious folks. "What's a holy man doing uniting himself to a dirty rotten scoundrel like Levi?"

A meal was an opportunity to forge unity through hospitality. Sincere and gracious hospitality made possible a lasting and rich unity. Jesus's name means "savior"; his other name at birth was Immanuel, "God with us". The incarnation implies that God has come as one of us to save us from our sins. He is willing to enter into our hearts and homes - to be the receiver of our hospitality and build unity with us. Jesus lived up to his name when he partied with Levi's friends.

But in a much more profound sense, this is Jesus' world - and he is coming to us offering his hospitality, his welcome, his gracious offer of unity with him. He is inviting us into his world, his home, his heart. He's throwing a party, are we willing to be united with him, sharing a meal with him, with the the Body of Christ? Jesus invites us to eat and drink with other Christians - will we do it? Will we let ourselves be united with other disciples, like what Jesus prayed for? Like what Jesus did? It's how Levi became a disciple. And wrote a Gospel. And united his friends to the Savior.

Why not look for ways for the Body of Christ and the community share meals together? Just as God has come to us to build unity, why doesn't the church go into the community to extend that unity? The church and the community already have meals scheduled to eat. There will be drinking. In homes? In a park. While serving in a local school? While working together?

What holds us back from building unity whereever and whenever possible? Christians who can share meals with other Christians different from them is a powerful example of unity. Jesus prayed that the church would be one, just as he and the Father are one. If hospitality and unity can break out within the church, it will fuel a rich hospitality and unity with the community.

The two ought to go together - the church united in it's hospitality to the community. There are going to be meals - why not infuse them with hospitality, wanting to build unity with people not like you - in another church or from a different "tribe"? This is communionity.

There are actions that form us to be more like Jesus. Hospitality and unity are spiritual practices that form our heart and spirit, our body and mind to love our neighbor as God loves us. The practice of hospitality and unity building, while it may start off quietly and under the radar - if it is a work of Jesus, it will be his instrument through which he shapes your heart to beat like his and by which he connects you to those in the community he has already been ministering to.

Here's some thoughts on the spiritual practices of hospitality and unity for you to consider. Which one of these practices is Jesus prompting you to try out this week?

Spiritual Formation thru Unity
* Working with believers from various traditions to achieve kingdom purposes
* Sharing worship with other Christian denominations in your community
* Finding points on which you agree, not simply points on which you disagree.
* Having fewer divisions between and more love among Christians in a community
* Growing in appreciation for the diversity of the Body of Christ
* Being part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer for unity in the church in John 17

“In essentials unity. In nonessentials liberty. In all things charity.”

What have you learned about building unity with people different then you?

What practices of unity and hospitality could you pass on to others?

Communionity via Hospitality

Communionity. It's a new word we're exploring, a verb that describes what we're doing and becoming as a church. Every church is marked by it's practices of communion. What if the church reshaped it's practice of communion so that it forged a unity with the community where it gathers for worship in the name of Christ? What if communion was a practice that welcomed sinners and bound Christians together - instead of it being a practice that traditionally excludes sinners and divides Christians?

The story of Jesus eating and drinking with Levi and this sinful tax collector friends deeply shapes the Gospel understanding of communion. Whereas we often only look back to the Passover meal Jesus shared with twelve of his male disciples as a starting point for communion, we ought to consider the whole life of Jesus and his reputation of being a glutton and a drunk.

Apparently Jesus ate and drank so often with sinners that he "ruined" his reputation with people of high social standing and a righteous reputation. But Jesus was on a mission to heal the sick, to preach forgiveness of sins and call the unrighteous to repentance. He came to change lives for good and for God. Communion - common union through meals - was one of those ways he instigated holy transformation in the social fabric of the community and the hearts of men and women on the margins of society.


Hospitality for the church becomes a key task of our mission to forge unity in our community with sinners who are not part of the Body of Christ. The church is a gathering of sinners who have experienced the "metanoia" or change or repentance of their sins. This forgiveness of sins, this fresh start with God and others, this is good news! We want to invite others into this new way of life with Christ - so we welcome and forge unity like He did.

By opening up our homes and hearts to others in our community - and by joining our neighbors for dinner in their home - this kind of hospitality and unity is following in the way of Jesus. Communionity.

There are actions that form us to be more like Jesus. Hospitality and unity are spiritual practices that form our heart and spirit, our body and mind to love our neighbor as God loves us. Imagine the impact your hospitality in your school cafeteria, your breakroom at work, your dinner table in the neighborhood could have?

You might think it small or insignificant. But the practice of hospitality and unity building, while it may start off quietly and under the radar - if it is a work of Jesus, it will be his instrument through which he shapes your heart to beat like his and by which he connects you to those in the community he has already been ministering to.

Levi was ready for Jesus when the invitation came to "Follow me!" Jesus was ready for the hospitality that Levi gushed forth following his conversion. Jesus had been at work in Levi's life long before he made the invite. And Jesus had been a ready for a long time to party with other tax collectors and sinners prior to Levi's invite.

Jesus is at work in the community preparing neighbors to hear his call to "Follow me!" Will there be a congregation in the community willing to welcome their neighbor with warm and gracious hospitality? Will there be the willingness to forge a union with a stranger and help them become a friend? When the spiritual practices of hospitality are put to work in everyday life, they create a forward momentum for their homes and their church that makes them more ready to celebrate with all the Levi's Jesus in calling to "Follow me." Communionity.

Here's some thoughts on the spiritual practices of hospitality for you to consider. Which one of these practices is Jesus prompting you to try out this week?

Spiritual Formation thru Hospitality
* Sharing your home, food, resources, car and all that you call your own so that another might experience the reality of God’s welcoming heart
* Reaching out to and receiving the stranger or the enemy with the hope that they might be transformed into a friend.
* Loving, not entertaining, the guest
* Welcoming others into your clique, group, club, life
* Spontaneously inviting people for meals
* Providing safe places for people in an unsafe world
* Loving people rather than impressing them
* Developing conversational skills that put others at ease
* Opening your home to others

What have you learned about fostering rich hospitality from your home and heart?

What practices of hospitality could you pass on to others?

A Movement Towards Communionity

Anchor is part of a movement to connect with a Christ who is connected with our community. It's a movement towards communionity. We believe that the Jesus we worship and serve is fully present in our neighborhood. With or without us.

Anchor wants to join Jesus in what he is doing in our community. If Christ comes as good news, then that's what we want to be as well. But this requires that Anchor continues to learn how to commune with a Christ such that it builds a movement of unity with our community. Communionity.

Too often Christians focus on "Jesus and me" at the expense of "Jesus and my neighbor too." Communion on Sunday mornings too often reinforces a narrow view of being a Christian, "Thank you for forgiving me of my sins." What if how we did communion focused us less on our past sins, and more on Jesus and his current work to save our community from sin?

That's what we'll learn and begin to put into practice this Autumn at Anchor. Communionity is our new word to describe our learning to commune with Christ who is connected to our community. Unity with Christ will include unity with our community where Christ is currently at work. Can our participation in communion increase our connections in the community with people not like us, with the poor and imprisoned, with the wounded and wandering?

We'll have to learn some new ways of partaking of Communion, of participating in the Lord's Supper, of celebrating the Eucharist, of anticipating that Great Banquet. It'll take some practice, some creativity, some openness to the promptings of the Spirit of Jesus. And that's what it takes to start a movement of communionity.

Jesus came to start a movement where by ever more diverse people would experience the healing, freeing, transforming power of God and then in joy invite their community: "Come follow Jesus with us!"

Come join us in our movement towards communionity!

The Church Just Wants Your Money! (part two)

Churches too often ask for money from a position of neediness. Which ties guilt to the request. This also gives the aura that maybe there was a little mismanagement or lack of foresight or wisdom. All of which will discourage people from giving generously (though maybe still out of guilt).

When a church asks for more money, there needs to be a clear articulation of how the generosity will help the congregation love it's neighbor better. 

If the giving is to be for facility upgrades, one would want to know how the facility is used to serve the community. If increased giving is for staff, one would want to know how the neighbors are going to be better served. If the giving is for programming, one would want to know how this will help make the neighborhood a better place to live.

Are we asking for more money as a way to spread the good news, or is it getting in the way? There is nothing wrong with asking for more money, unless how and why you are doing it undermines your ability to live out the Gospel.

Is Jesus being honored with the stewardship of the money that has already been given? Is the community being served well? Is the congregation growing in generosity, love, grace and truth? How will more people be blessed in the congregation and the community if more money is given to the church?

The Bible teaches us not to be stingy with our money, but to be generous. If you love money, you will be stingy with it. "Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income." [Ecclesiastes 5v10] But if you love God, you will be generous with it. The church ought to ask for more money, but more for spiritual formation reasons then money woes. By helping the congregation grow in generosity, they grow in their trust with God, they grow in their help to their neighbor, and they become less worried about having enough money.

The Apostle Paul writes to his friends in Corinth:

"Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." [2Corinthians 9v6-8]

If we learn anything about Jesus, love and money, it's to be generous with it. Sow generously to the people in your life. Be generous to people in need. Sow generosity as you love your neighbor. Be generous to the Lord's work.

Since your local church is part of the Lord's work, and it has people in need, and it includes people in your life, and it's part of the neighborhood, be generous to your local church!

But even more important, sow generously as the Spirit of the Lord directs you.

The Church Just Wants Your Money!

It's out there. Enough churches have earned the reputation for being money-grubbers, that it's tainted everyone else.

For a church to talk, let alone teach about money, has become a very awkward situation. Church leaders are afraid to ask about money, members get uncomfortable if there is too much talk about money, and visitors get concerned if their first Sunday happens to be when there is a request for more money.

But: churches have got to figure out how to talk about money more often in a more normal fashion. Money is the stuff of life, it is "the answer for everything." To quote Ecclesiastes 10v19.

So if churches don't mature in the way they talk and teach about money, they'll make it almost impossible for members to mature in the way they manage and spend their money. Money is a really important issue for people. And churches.

The more wisdom we can accumulate about managing and investing our wealth, we increase our opportunities to bless and help our neighbors. "Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have money." [Ecclesiastes 7v12]

Anchor is in the process of asking it's congregation to give more money. It's been a difficult task, since we've not talked about money very much and thus we aren't comfortable doing so. But Jesus says that in order to receive, you have to ask. So we've made the ask. And people are responding.

They're thankful for the difference Anchor has made in their life and of many others in the congregation. They're also excited about the involvement of Anchor in the neighborhood, and they want to see that increase. Our pastoral staff makes a point of investing in the people of the congregation and the community. We ended the year 2012 with one full time pastor serving the congregation and the community. We'd like to end the year 2013 with two full time pastors serving more people. The need is there. More money will make it more possible for Anchor to better serve more people in our community and congregation.

We want to help make more disciples of Jesus who will help make our neighborhood a better place to live. An anchor for the community. Because Jesus is an anchor for us.

Discipling is a difficult task. Discipling such that the community is transformed by the love of Christ is even more daunting. But if our love for God is connected to our love of neighbor, and if we are to be transformed by God's love, shouldn't our neighborhood be transformed by our love for God?

That's what I think Jesus has in mind for a church to be and proclaim the good news of salvation and shalom.

And it's what Anchor is committed to doing everyday.

The Church is Like A...

What is the church like? 

Or: what could the church become like? 

In an age where more churches are closing then being started, when attendance is declining and unbelief is rising, we ought to reconsider who we are becoming and what we are doing. 

Using the analogy of place, what could the church be like? In desiring Jesus's work of redemption and renewal of all things to burst forth in local churches, what kind of places should we be?

I've listed out seven metaphors of place that help me grasp the multi-faceted reality of a church as a place where people gather in the name of Jesus. These metaphors come from my readings from the New Testament about Jesus and from important places in our society, as well as realities of the church over the ages.

The Church is like a Business: the church is a place where people get organized with their time, their money, their interests and skills in order to better serve one another and their community. Jesus wants us to use our wealth as a blessing; organized generosity is better then chaotic help.

The Church is like a Community Center: the church is a place where helpful collaboration can occur that blesses the neighborhood. Jesus instructed his disciples to love their neighbor, their enemy, and one another.

The Church is like a Dining Table: the church is a place where people gather around a table to break bread and eat together. Jesus earned the reputation for being a glutton and a drunkard because of all the time he spent with sinners at a table.

The Church is like a Hospital: the church is a place where spiritually sick and physically ailing and existentially broken people gather together looking for hope and healing. Jesus said he came to heal the sick, and so a church ought to continue in that work.

The Church is like a Mission Post: the church is a place from where people are sent out into their local and global world as messengers of the Good News. Jesus commanded his disciples to go into the world where they live.

The Church is like a Sanctuary: the church is to be a place of prayer with other believers. Jesus wants to be an anchor for our soul, the one upon whom we cast all our cares.

The Church is like a School: the church is a place where you learn to love like Christ.  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life - he is the teacher and we are always his students.


Churches run into problems when they focus on only one of these metaphors, or make one more important then the others, or forget about how they are all interdependent.

Imagine what the church could be like if all seven of these metaphors were at work in our congregation?

What do these different metaphors mean for leadership in the church?
What kind of participation does it require from people who choose to be part of a church?
What challenges do churches face in light of these metaphors of place?
What opportunities can we see through these metaphors?

First Thoughts on Toxic Charity

When I was a senior in high school, I went to visit my mom and her classroom full of twenty-five first-grade students. It was in the middle of winter and the day was just coming to an end. The students were gathering their belongings and preparing for the vicious sub-zero temperatures for the journey out to the buses.  

All of her students were putting on hats, gloves, snow boots, and thick winter coats. One student in particular decided he was going to put on his mittens then zip up his coat.  He soon realized that without the help of his individual fingers, it was nearly impossible to zip up his own coat.  He approached my mom and asked, “Mrs. Uhey, can you zip my coat for me?” and my mom kindly responded, “No, I will not zip your coat. When you’re getting ready to leave, zip up your coat then put your mittens on. You can do it.”  

With that, he took off his mittens, zipped his coat, then put his mittens back on. Initially, when I first saw this interaction I thought, “come on, mom! You could have just zipped his coat! How could you not help him!” Little did I know is that my mom’s response to this student in her class was the best, most helpful response she could have given. 

I know this story seems random and almost insignificant, but what my mom demonstrated in front of her student and myself was something incredibly profound when it comes to working with people, especially those in need. 

My mom recognized that her student had the capacity to do what he asked of her.  She could have helped him, but instead, she seized the moment as a time to teach him what he could do if he applied himself.  In this small interaction, she taught her student as well as empowered him, building him up to become independent.

Toxic Charity, written by Bob Lupton, discusses in more depth the benefits of empowering those who are struggling.  

In most charity cases, we see people who are willing to give, and give a lot and there is nothing wrong with having a giving, compassionate heart! However, if you take a close look at the receiving end of giving, it can have some unintended, harmful effects.  

Lupton gives the example of a well-off family dropping off gifts at Christmas. The giving family is happy to give, stopping by the house on Christmas and enjoying a little fellowship. What is strange is that the father of the receiving family is nowhere to be seen, for it is embarrassing for this father to be reminded in front of a random family that he cannot provide for his own family. 

Looking closely at this, we should not be so quick to think that our giving is actually helpful.  

The point is to figure out why this father cannot provide for his family and work with him in a way that will set him up to be able to provide for his family for the next Christmas. Handing out gifts may make the giver feel good and boost their “God complex” but can create a social separation between the two parties, hurting the essence of community.

When we set out to do some kind of charity work, our hope is to improve the quality of life for those we are serving.  The kind of charity that improves the quality of life of those being served requires careful consideration and lots of time. It takes a lot of heart and a lot of drive.  

Community and Disillusionment

A community that cannot bear and cannot survive... disillusionment, clinging instead to it's idealized image, when that should be done away with, loses at the same time the promise of durable Christian community. Sooner or later it is bound to collapse.

Every human idealized image that is brought into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine Christian community and must be broken up so that genuine community can survive.

Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.

God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious.

Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly.

They stand adamant, a living reproach to all others in the Christian community, as if their visionary ideal binds the people together. Whatever does not go their way, they call a failure.

When their idealized image is shattered, they see the community breaking into pieces. So they first become accusers of other Christians in the community, then accusers of God, and finally the desperate accusers of themselves.
~ from Life Together, 35-36 // taken from A Year w/ Dietrich Bonhoeffer May 22

Every Christian at some point somehow develops a vision of what kind of congregation, what kind of people, what kind of Christians they would like to be around and in community with at a church. Almost everyone creates some kind of vision for how small groups ought to go, how Sunday school ought to go, how worship ought to go, how fellowship events or Bible studies or accountability relationships ought to go. We all tend to form our preferences for Christian community. I'm very guilty of it.

When I first read these words of Bonhoeffer in 2007, they hit me like a hammer on the head. I've reread this text many many times, prayerfully asking for forgiveness from God and help from Christ to not fuel an idealized image.

As the Gospel continues to embrace the lost and broken, the poor and marginalized, the humbled and struggling, the community that Christ creates will not be ideal. But it will be real, it will be with Christ, and it will be in honesty as sinners who are learning and stumbling forward to be reconciled to God.

Grace, love, truth, peace, and righteousness are hallmarks of Christian community; but they are thus because we the people are originally ungraceful, unloving, untruthful, unpeaceful, and unrighteous. We may bring forms of good with us to church, but only Christ can put in us and draw out of us His grace, love, truth, peace and righteousness. And we only grow in it by meeting sin in the other, and responding like Christ.

In our consumerist society, it is too easy to justify finding a Christian community that comes closest to meeting your "ideal" needs. It is really difficult for a Christian to let himself/herself be guided into Christian community by the Spirit of Christ - for it requires blocking your ears to the Sirens of Consumerism. To participate or depart a Christian community should not be based on disillusionment, but rather as part of Christ's mission in the world.

But if you are disappointed or disillusioned in a church, aside from outright sin and corruption by evil, you have to ask: how much of the frustration is fueled by my consumerist-spiritual cravings, and how much is part of God's ongoing work to transform me by placing me in a real Christian community where sin and mistakes and bungling is present and we are all learning how to be reconciled to one another just as God reconciled himself to us.