re:fresh : from event to life

I don't blog on it enough really, that's because I care too much about it than to write about it here. re:Fresh gathered together at the weekened, dwelling in the presence of God and growing in our relationship with him and each other.

For ages we've tried to move away from the 'event' focussed way of doing 'unity' amongst Christian young people from different congregations. we've felt strongly that hosting 'open spaces' where friendships can grow is more important, and a kind of discipleship and cross-church (or the Church) community can be lived as a reality day in day out.

Ella wrote on my facebook:

"I am childishly excited about breaking words like community apart, "com-" with; together; jointly; altogether, "unity" - the state of being united or joined as a whole, being one... It's a double word!"

That is the heart of this thing - to 'be together as one'...

Although, its helpful to bring these guys together sometimes. So, the paradox of "event vs. gathering" has been a hard one. But we're starting to crack it. Mainly through the 'pray3d' stuff that's just launched, and also, the immense times of informal worship we have. 

I'm continually blown away by the young people involved, who seem to get this far better than I do these days. I feel out of my depth most of the time here. But what a wonderful problem it is!

Andrew Jones, aka Tall Skinny Kiwi has written a bit on his blog about the change generally in church from Event to Life...he writes "People sometimes ask me why I gave up on that model and shifted over to organic/house church and what used to be called "emerging church". The reason had to do with a God-directed shift away from unsustainable resource-hungry models of church towards reproducing movements of God's people being the church and celebrating together without having to put on an expensive show. So we dumped the stage and focused our time on living out the gospel rather than performing it on a stage, and making disciples rather than attracting spectators."

Awesome! If we could live this across our mini church barriers, to live as the connected 'one' body of Christ...well, its a dream that I will always give myself to.