Overview of Our Church Life
Goals of Eugene Faith Center
In light of the context in which we find ourselves and the urgings of the Spirit we are feeling in this time (what the Spirit is saying to the churches), what is the purpose and what are the goals of Eugene Faith Center? Why does Eugene Faith Center exist and what is it trying to do?
This scripture from Matthew embodies what Eugene Faith Center is all about...Relationship with God, ourselves and others.
But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him: “Rabbi, what is the great commandment in the Law?”
Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind”. This is the first and greatest commandment and the second is life it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets.
- Matthew 22:34-40
Nurture
For nurture, vision and empowerment we look primarily to the Christian scriptures, but also to the ongoing insights of the churches, our reason and our experience, all through the Spirit
But why and for what purpose? To what is that vision, nurture and empowerment driving us?
Relationship
Taking our cue from Jesus we think the overarching purpose of the scriptures, the Spirit inspired insights of the ongoing life of the churches, our reason and experience is to help us learn to love God, ourselves, one another and all other realms of the Creation
Mission
But is that it? Is discovering, enjoying, caring for and developing loving relationship with God, ourselves, one another and all other created realms an end in itself?
No. We are empowered and enabled to discover, enjoy, care for and develop these relationships so that we can partner with God, one another and all other created realms to see God’s dream, God’s kingdom come in greater and fuller ways.
Practices of the church
If nurture, relationship and mission are the goals of the church, what activities do we engage in to facilitate our achieving of those goals?
We use the snapshot of early church life depicted in Acts 2:37-47 as a model for the shared life and ministry of our church:
After hearing Peter tell them that Jesus, who they had crucified was actually a true prophet anointed by the Spirit, that he had been raised from the dead and that God had made him to be both Lord and messiah, the people asked Peter how they should respond, to which Peter answered,
“Repent, and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and you too will receive the Holy Spirit. For this promise of receiving this same Spirit in this same special way is for you too, and for your children. In fact, it’s for every person, no matter how far off they are, as many as the Lord our God will call.” And with many other words Peter continued to encourage them to save themselves from the crookedness of their lives.
And so, about 3,000 of them were baptized. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Everyone was in awe and many wonders and signs were done through the hands of the apostles.
And those who believed were together and had all things in common. And those who had possessions sold them and distributed to each person as they had need. So, continuing daily in the Temple and house to house, they ate heir food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added daily to the gathering those who were being saved." -- Acts 2: 37-47
Even though this little snapshot of early church life is nearly 2,000 years old we find it stills works well as a model for our church, indicating the primary devotions and activities which can facilitate our development and the development of the rule of God on earth. And these are the powerful, enriching and transformational activities to which we devote our congregational life and ministry:
Listening: Becoming aware of good messages (The Gospel).
According to the Christian scriptures and Christian Tradition, Creation takes place through the Word and the Spirit. And so does New Creation. The goodness and power of our personal experience begins with the messages we are enabled to receive.
Those messages come to us through all kinds of ways, and they are sensed and apprehended in imperfect ways. But somehow, we know, through the Spirit, that we are being spoken to and the power of that word has the capacity to generate new life.
Repentance: An openness and willingness to learn, to change and to grow.
Adopting a posture of ongoing repentance is so powerful. If we think we know it all, not even God can help us! But if we are open to learning, growing and making changes then it’s possible for us to experience greater freedom, health, enrichment and goodness of all kinds.
Water Baptism: Dying to old ways of being and living and being raised through the Spirit into new ones.
Water baptism is the traditional way people have signified their intention to follow Jesus and Jesus’ Way. The washing of water signifies complete forgiveness and cleansing. Being lowered into the water signifies a dying to old ways of being and living; being raised up out of the water signifies “resurrection” by the Spirit into new ones. And this of course becomes a dynamic we go on to practice in our lives over and over again, in deeper and deeper ways as we live out our baptism.
Receiving the Holy Spirit: Intentionally receiving the Spirit in a special way.
Though God’s Spirit is present and active everywhere in all the creation, in the New Testament and then throughout the history of the Christian churches, in addition to adopting a posture of repentance and becoming baptized in water believers would also have hands laid on them to actively and personally “receive” the Spirit. This personal appropriation of the Spirit empowers us to experience God’s life and our own life in deeper and richer ways.
Community Life: Sharing life with one another.
Solitude is a gift; loneliness is difficult; but ongoing isolation is unhealthy. Therefore these early disciples made sure to share their lives with one another in ways that helped them all to find greater enjoyment and fulfillment.
The Heart and Spirit of the Church
The great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis once said, “True Christianity is like a good infection: You catch it and then you become contagious”. And I think there’s a lot of truth to that.
It’s not just what you do, but why and how you do it that makes a difference. It’s the heart and it’s the Spirit.
And so, while we want to use these activities to pursue these goals, above all we want our vision and activities to be bathed in a heart and spirit of welcome and acceptance, a deep respect for God and one another, kindness, honesty, discipline and, above all love.
Beyond all of what we might be aware of or be capable of understanding, this is the environment within which miracles can take place, miracles that can take us beyond the limits of our own visions and understandings.