Thinking outside of the box on small groups and other things

It's 11:30 p.m. Sunday night and our friends Alain and Nathalie just left a few minutes ago. They regularly come over on Sunday evenings for summer and hanging out. We all, including our 3 kids, enjoy their presence. It's not formally a small group of our church. However, in thinking about exactly what we have, it is a small group. We eat supper together, discuss life, try to encourage each other, and feel comfortable around each other. We watched the presidential election results on the news 2 and 4 weeks ago and discussed the implications of these choices of the French people. Today we discussed music in France and learned a lot about different singers of the 20th and 21st century.

We don't have a systematic Bible study, although the discussion often turns to more formal spiritual matters and sharing of concerns. When Alain shared about one group that he had had contact with, I was able to find some info on them in one of the books in our library. Alain has helped us reflect on some issues through his wisdom and passing on of several good books to us. We often discuss what happened and was taught at our church on Sunday morning and during the week. During the week, my wife often calls him and/or vice versa to check on how things are going.

During the last 10 days, discussions at la fonderie's leaders meeting and with Lionel (see yesterday's blog) have gotten me thinking a little more outside of box on the Church and the church. Our heart is more and more to invest more and more of our time and energy being the church and bringing it to places and people in Paris where it appears to not yet be. For this reason, I'm less and less interested in "church business" as it typically is seen in adding more and more meetings for those already in church. Certainly, there is the need for some of these meetings for some people, so these meetings aren't necessarily bad things. However, where they soak up the majority of the energy, finances, relationships and time of those already in church, there probably is some misalignment in one's perspective and priorities.

As Ugandan David Zac Niringiye points out, the "Great Invitation" of Jesus is to "come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." The emphasis is on following Jesus as a disciple. The result of this should be that we become fishers of men and women. However, where we are not seeing any fruit in terms of helping to attract people to Jesus, then there would seem to be a problem in our spiritual diet of discipleship. Perhaps a lot of Western discipleship is too self-centered and inward looking? It's all well and good to memorize verses and meet regularly together, but what practical good is that if it doesn't bubble up into words and acts that are a fragrant perfume that helps draw people to Jesus.