After almost 2 months I’m finally reaching the end of Michael Frost’s Exiles book. This isn’t really a sign that its a tough read, but more in relation to the things that have been going on in my life over the last 5 weeks.
Anyway, Frost’s last two chapters are about Worship and it’s place in the ‘Emerging’ church. Reading through these chapters there is nowhere near the amount that I disagree with or question in comparison to the rest of the book.
When looking at how worship has developed over the years, Frost has this to say:
… worship services ought to be corporate expressions of the overflow of the regular life of a community that churches together at some level every day.1
By doing this our primary gathering place moves away from the church building itself and becomes the places that our most private interactions happen; our homes. This is fast becoming my understanding of how we should be involved in church.
The first 8 years of my adulthood were spent in a succession of rented bedsits across England. At the time I was crying out for a deeper fellowship within the corps I attended, but continually failed to find it. This led me into a lifestyle that became far more about finding that fellowship outside the church, whilst continuing to attend on a Sunday and go through the motions. Only occasionally did I glimpse the possibility of something deeper being available, and it was always in the homes of others.
I’ve realised that this is something that not only I have suffered from. I’ve been blessed for the last 10 years with real deep friendships amongst the fellowships I have made my home. At present I probably feel the greatest fellowship with other believers in my house group. It is where the real church stuff happens. Coming together on a Sunday with others is great for celebrating our wonderful Lord, but the house group is where “the rubber hits the road”.
Our homes are becoming fortresses in the western world. Places of safety to retreat to away from our hectic lives, but I think that this is where the real worship is done, especially when we throw open our homes and lives to share with our fellow Christians and non-Christians too!
1 Michael Frost, Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, pg 286
Agree absolutely. I’ve even been in cells which are so heavily programmed it’s like being in church. No space for relationship building/faith accompaniment allowed - you have five elements to get through in an hour and a half or the leader gets into trouble with the cells coordinator!
If it was possible I would always either be in, or offering, spiritual growth group, prayer triplet or similar. But it just doesn’t seem to be church culture here in UK - is it an expression of the low level of trust found within the church? I’m interested to know why this is isn’t happening. It is very difficult, though not impossible, to do it on-line or by skype etc ,but it does need a local setting if it can be found. I know I keep coming across people who yearn for formative friendships and cannot find them.
I’m slowly getting through exiles but just finding it very long! Is there a brief summary out there? :0) Great book though.
Warmest blessings
Eleanor
Sr under private vows
Penzance
Hi Eleanor,
I agree that Exiles is a long book. It’s great but Frost seems to get to his points in a ponderous way. Sometimes it feels like travelling through thick mud when an easier path was possible.
Anyway, I think that our small group is a great illustration of how they can work. We take it in turns to lead and the subject is set according to the leader that week. The trust level is high, but I suspect that this is something to do with us almost all being ‘foreigners’.
Maybe that is the real secret. If more Christians truly understood their position of ‘being in the world but not of it’ then we would have more in common with each other, and the trust level would be deeper.
God bless,
Graeme