Cancelled: Lessons learnt.

It snowed yesterday.  Of course you noticed because we decided not to gather for corporate worship.  Of course you noticed because you looked outside and decided it was better inside.  If you had to clear your driveway, how many times did you do that?  Sharon and I went out eight times.  It is easier to do several small cleanings than one big one.

I hate cancelling.  Very early Sunday morning I was reading weather reports, looking at the Ministry of Transportation traffic cameras, and waiting for a few people to text me with updates on the conditions in their areas.  By 6:30 AM, it was pretty clear that we needed to cancel.  Hindsight shows it was a good call - but up until the last minute I wasn’t sure if it was or not.

This is the second Sunday in a row that weather has been an obstacle to gathering together.  Both times it was a good thing we didn’t venture out.  Even though it was a good thing to do, it really irked me that we had to cancel.  I’ve been wondering why that is.

Probably the biggest factor is a lingering old-school mindset (not necessarily a healthy one) that says, “Ministry at any cost.”  Intellectually we can easily poke holes into that kind of thinking.  But old patterns of thinking die hard.  It takes an intentional effort to reframe what we are as a community of faith and why we gather regularly.  

Since I’ve been processing all this for the last week, allow me to share a few of my thoughts.

According to the Apostle Paul, the community of faith is a Body.  He uses that metaphor frequently not because it communicates well but because it is an accurate representation of an underlying reality.  Within the church, there is a unique unifying work of the Holy Spirit.  This is much more than just mutually compatible interests.  When we are reconciled to God by His grace, that faith creates a special bond with other members of the Kingdom of God.  That unity expresses itself through serving one another, praying for one another, and encouraging one another . . . and that’s just for starters.

Since we are a Body that should be concerned with one another’s well-being, should we not cancel a gathering for the overall well-being of our community of faith?  Yes, I think we should - but my intellectual processes often lag behind the experience processes of days gone by.

It is also important to ask the question, “Why do we gather?”  The simple answer to that is, “To worship.”  What does that mean?  

Unfortunately, “worship” is one of those English words that is used to translate a variety of different words and concepts from the Hebrew and Greek texts.  Consequently, it has been reduced to a general meaning of “church service,” or perhaps a more specific meaning of “music.”  The actual range of meanings in the Bible are quite broad including everything from serving to obeying to submitting to God’s authority to praising God to praying to reading of the Scriptures.  The worship of God is not encapsulated by a given set of rituals or ceremonies.  It is the habit of integrating the reality of who God is into every dynamic of life - individually and corporately.

My comment in yesterday’s email, “Enjoy communing with God over your snow shovel and a cup of coffee” is not just an attempt to put a humourous spin on the cancellation.  It is also good theology.

Gathering for corporate worship has the exact same purposes as my personal worship of God - it is just a different environment.  We can summarize those purposes with three “R”s.

First, our perspective is refocused when we worship God as a dynamic of life.  Whether it is at the personal level or a larger community level, we often feel like the world is spinning out of control.  Worshipping God brings our perspective back into focus:  He is the Creator who continues to hold authority over all things.  Our confusion does not equate His disengagement.  He is God and there is no other.

Our perspective often needs tweaking in other areas as well.  Like the prosperous farmer of Luke 12 or the ancient king Nebuchadnezzar, prosperity and blessing also needs to be processed from a Kingdom of God perspective.  Gratitude and generosity are important expressions of worship.

Second, when we worship God, we will refresh our hearts.  It is no coincidence that the majority of the Psalms are laments.  Life can be tough.  Asaph hit the nail on the head in Psalm 73 when he said, “As for me, I was going to quit my faith because it was nothing but hard work, and all my attempts at living with integrity kept biting me in the backside” (Graham’s translation).  However, he continues with this great phrase: “Until I gathered with the people of God and remembered the ultimate fate of the wicked and blessing of the righteous.”  His heart was refreshed because he entered a place of worship - in this case corporate worship, but the impact is the same when we engage in our personal worship of God.

Third, we worship through the renewal of our minds.  Faith is not anti-intellectual.  Worship is not just an experience.  The truths, values, and priorities of the Kingdom of God are not like those of the cultures around us.  Jesus repeated this over and over again, but it wasn’t until after the Resurrection that the early disciples finally understood it.  The Kingdom of God is unlike any kingdom on earth:  the last will be first, and the first will be last.  “Don’t pursue positions of power,” Jesus said.  “Serve one another.”  Embracing those truths is a cognitive choice, not a feeling.

Refocusing our perspective, refreshing our hearts, and renewing our minds are habits that happen in the privacy of our personal worship and in the dynamics of community.

I agonized over the decisions to cancel.  In the end, they were the right calls, but it was hard.  I needed to be disciplined in remembering that part of the Body dynamic means choosing to do what is in the best interest of the Body instead of defaulting to “Ministry at any cost.”  The next time this kind of scenario occurs, someone please remind me, “We are the body of Christ.  Do what is best for the body!”

Enjoy communing with God over your snow shovel today.